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Preparation of a full Darwin Initiative proposal using remote communication has limited success, as shown by rejection of our Round 23 bid. While ineligible for technical reasons, there were weaknesses which will be addressed more effectively through face-to-face preparatory meetings. Our visit to Nairobi will address: • Build an effective multi-disciplinary project team; • Ensure the necessary project actors have been identified, including local NGOs representing farmers and extension workers; these lack international visibility and are difficult to identify and reach from abroad; • Make firm connection with relevant Kenyan government offices and ensure policy linkages; • Obtain information on current impact of non-native scale insects on biodiversity and agriculture; • Develop output dissemination strategy; • Ensure all permits and authorisations (for collecting, research, export) will be delivered and that selected collecting sites will be made accessible. Key persons and facilitators can be met only on site; • Ensure a pool of students will be available when the project starts, to be trained in the taxonomy and identification of scale insects and mealybugs, as well as in databasing; • Assess the current state of the historical collections at NMK and KALRO to determine appropriate project costs (can only be done on site)