Outlook on AGRICULTURE Vol 42, No 3, 2013, pp 185–192 doi: 10.5367/oa.2013.0137 185 Looking at agricultural innovation platforms through an innovation champion lens An analysis of three cases in West Africa Laurens Klerkx, Samuel Adjei-Nsiah, Richard Adu-Acheampong, Aliou Saïdou, Elizabeth Zannou, Lassine Soumano, Owuraku Sakyi-Dawson, Annemarie van Paassen and Suzanne Nederlof Abstract: The concept of an innovation platform is increasingly used in interventions inspired by agricultural innovation systems thinking, as a way of bringing stakeholders from a sector together to enable transformative change. An essential role on such innovation platforms is thought to be that of the ‘innovation champion’, but this role has so far not been unravelled. In this paper, by applying insights from management science to analyse three innovation platforms in West Africa from the Convergence of Sciences – Strengthening Innovation Systems programme (CoS–SIS), different types of innovation champions are mapped. The authors conclude that making a distinction among different types of innovation champions can be useful in identifying members for innovation platforms, but that the specifics of agricultural innovation appear not to be adequately captured by roles attributed to existing categories of innovation champions. Further research is needed to ascertain whether other categories exist, and how different innovation champions interact over time on agricultural innovation platforms. Keywords: innovation platforms; agricultural innovation systems; CoS–SIS; Ghana; Benin Laurens Klerkx (corresponding author) and Annemarie van Paassen are with the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen, The Netherlands. E-mail: laurens.klerkx@wur.nl. Samuel Adjei-Nsiah is with the Forest and Horticultural Crops Research Centre, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. Richard Adu-Acheampong is with the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, Tafo-Akim, Ghana. Aliou Saïdou and Elizabeth Zannou are with Département de Production Végétale, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Benin. Lassine Soumano is with Institut Polytechnique Rural de Formation et Recherche Appliquée, Bamako, Mali. Owuraku Sakyi-Dawson is with the Department of Agricultural Extension, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. Suzanne Nederlof is with the Rural Development and Food Security Programme, Van Hall Larenstein, Wageningen, The Netherlands.