The Science Council (SC) of the CGIAR initiated a process of System-level priority setting, in line with its aim to help develop a more cohesive and better-focused, high-quality research program to alleviate poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. There were several reasons for the initiative. First, despite many individual research successes in the past, the CGIAR System can have greater impact through a more consolidated research focus. Second, there is a need to avoid dispersion of research. As the goals of the CGIAR have widened and its total budget has increased, there has been selective funding of a large number of specific projects negotiated with donors. Many such projects address particular (local) research or development problems and do not exploit the core strength of the CGIAR as a research supplier of international public goods. Third, there is a need to mobilize research capacity across the CGIAR System more effectively. Projects addressing difficult issues for sustainable poverty reduction (e.g. smallholder productivity gains in Africa) need sharply focused, long-term, and multi-pronged approaches involving research on different commodities, themes, and disciplines. Fourth, there are opportunities to enhance coordination and cooperation. Centers have already shown increased willingness and capacity to coordinate and cooperate with one another. Well-defined System Priorities will help to develop more effective partnerships with national agricultural research systems (NARS) and advanced research institutes in both the North and the South. Fifth, clearly defined research approaches and routes to poverty alleviation will increase participation by stakeholders in priority setting, and assist donors in allocating their resources to the CGIAR project with potentially large impacts. Sixth, setting System priorities provides the opportunity to enhance accountability.
The priority-setting process consisted of a multi-pronged approach that was both analytical and broadly consultative with stakeholders - including nongovernmental organizations, donors, and scientists both within the CGIAR System and in other research institutions, including NARS and advance research centres. Building on an assessment of emerging trends during the consultative stage of the priority-setting process, the SC reviewed the total research portfolio of the CGIAR, projected to 2015, and sought to focus the CGIAR research agenda on a smaller number of priority areas of research.

Major new research emphases in the System Priorities of CGIAR research for 2005-2015 focus on:

> A re-emphasis of the CGIAR's role in research on major long-term issues
> Development of specific System-wide contributions to the Millennium Development Goals
> Research for development - not development per se
> Explicit focus on income generation among the poor
> A new collaborative approach to research on fruits and vegetables
> Research on trade, markets, and food safety
> Enhanced focus of research on drought, soil acidity, and temperature stress
> Application of modern molecular science
> Landscape-level approaches to the management of agricultural and natural resources.

More information on the CGIAR's System research priorities for 2005-2015 can be found in:
www.sciencecouncil.cgiar.org/activities/spps/index.html