Introduction

A now commonly used mechanism for funding agricultural research is the Competitive Grants Scheme (CGS). This tool, which has become increasingly popular since the early 1990s has been used to develop, ensure and sustain scientific capacity and to allocate resources to the most important scientific (and development) issues. While a number of such CGS have emerged over the years, the long gestation nature of agricultural and related research makes it difficult to draw conclusions about its efficiency and effectiveness for improving research relevance, effects on national capacity building, and sustainability of research infrastructure (Bie and Elliott, 2005).

Notwithstanding, it would be useful to learn of the emerging outcomes, if not impacts, of the many CGS currently being implemented as these would provide useful insights in the design and implementation of future CGS. It is in this context that the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), through its Project DURAS (Promotion of Sustainable Development in Agricultural Research System in the South), is organizing an electronic discussion on CGS.

This activity is a follow-up to the Pre-Plenary Session on "Lessons Learned in the ASARECA Competitive Grants" during the General Assembly of Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) held in June 2005 in Entebbe, Uganda. One of the recommendations of the session was for GFAR to move the debate on CGS a notch further, hence this e-discussion.

Objectives

This e-discussion will look at the effectiveness of CGS as a tool for leveraging partnerships as well as for building scientific and institutional capacities. It will also touch on the extent to which CGS contributes to improving research relevance and the post CGS funding scenario with regard to sustainability of research activities.

This virtual debate will run for a period 02 to 18 November 2005. The outcome will be presented during a Special GFAR Roundtable Discussion on 03 December 2005, during the period a number of GFAR Statutory Meetings will be held in Marrakech, Morocco, prior to the CGIAR AGM.

Click here to contribute to the e-discussion.