Sayed is the founding CEO of Crops For the Future (CFF), the global centre for research on the world's underutilised and forgotten crops. He is also Chair (Emeritus) in Global Food Security at the University of Nottingham. In 2021, he was awarded an OBE for 'services to underutilised crops and increasing global food security' and, in 2023, was appointed to the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the UN Committee on World Food Security. Sayed is a past Chair of the Association of International Research and Development Centers for Agriculture and is a regular advisor to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation. As well as Europe, he has extensive experience of working on crop/climate relations in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. He holds a BSc degree in Plant Biology from the University of Wales and a PhD in Environmental Physics from the University of Nottingham. He has written over 200 scientific papers and media articles and is the author of `The Ninth Revolution; transforming food systems for good’.

At THE NEW INSTITUTE, Sayed is involved in the The Future of Food: Power and Biodiversity program. He will join us in the fall term of 2024.