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Making competitive grants programs of the national agricultural research systems work: learning fro |
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In the last few years there has been increasing interest in
establishing competitive grants programs in agricultural research in
developing countries. In donor funded projects, these programs are
often seen as a complement to the ongoing research programs, undertaken
through regular long term research funding, but which often pose the
risk of being viewed as a panacea, and a substitute for regular long
term research funding. Their design and implementation needs to reflect
understanding of a complexity of factors needed to make them work
effectively. The design of Brazil ' s competitive grants program in
agriculture is drawing extensively on international and domestic
experience. This paper briefly reviews the recent Brazilian experience,
and offers its full operational manual for review, and possible wider
adaptation as appropriate in other countries. The competitive system
established and implemented by EMBRAPA (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa
Agropecu?ria) actively seeks to increase competitiveness, and
partnerships among participating institutions. Access to grant funding
by the entire national agricultural research system, through the
process of a competitive system, will enhance the quality of project
proposals, and support the improvement of research results and better
linkages of research to felt demands. Through partnerships, the Brazil
Agricultural Technology Development Project expects to capitalize on
the complementarity of Brazilian researchers with those at the global
level, and their corresponding institutions. At the national level, a
much better and efficient use of available infrastructure (labs, etc.)
should be attained.
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