3.1 Origin and Evolution of IRRI
3.2 IRRI Today and Tomorrow - Its Role and Mandate
3.3 IRRI's Strategic Plan and 1994-98 Medium -Term Plan
3.4 IRRI's current MTP 1998-2000
3.5 International Research Partnerships - Strategy, History, Evolution
3.6 IRRI's Response to the Recommendations of the 1992 EPMR
Nearly four decades ago, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations formally laid the groundwork for the International Rice Research Institute. In 1960, IRRI's headquarters and research facilities were constructed at Los Baños, adjacent to the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, on some 80 hectares of land.
The research during the first decade focused on raising the yield potential of irrigated rice almost to its present levels, predominantly by changing the morphological and physiological characteristics of the rice plant. IR8, the semi-dwarf, early maturing, non-photosensitive, nitrogen responsive rice that launched the modem changes in the rice world in the mid-1960s, was followed by varieties with increased insect and disease resistance and improved grain quality, such as IR20 and IR22 in 1969. Work on upland rice began in the early 1960s as well. At the same time, a programme of institution building was developed to strengthen national rice research systems through training and information dissemination and the development of a capacity in a number of disciplines, including economics.
During the 1970s, IRRI's work was extended to include lowland and deepwater rice, and expanded in the areas of economics and problem soil research. Interdisciplinary work on evaluation and utilization of rice germplasm and its systematic collection, storage, distribution and testing was established during this period, as was the International Rice Testing Programme (IRTP). The successes of the first decade were followed during the second decade by varieties with multiple stress resistance and improved grain quality, such as IR24 in 1971, IR32 and IR34 in 1975, IR36 in 1976. and IR42 in 1977. IR36 was widely accepted, due in part to its resistance to nine pests and tolerance to seven adverse soil conditions and drought, and became the world's most widely grown crop variety.
During IRRI's third decade, there was further expansion of the research programme, strengthening of national rice research systems, growing concern for women in rice farming and for integrated pest management (IPM), and movement into biotechnology and strategic research on genetics and germplasm enhancement. In 1985, IRRI produced IR64, the first IR cultivar with highly palatable grain plus high yield potential and multiple pest resistance, and followed it by success with its IPM programme in several Asian countries. By the mid-1980s, besides producing new varieties, IRRI had published 120 books in 34 languages and distributed them in 25 countries.
By the end of its third decade, IRRI was successfully applying biotechnology to accelerate genetic studies and wide hybridization, had defined new plant types that it hoped would further raise yield potentials, developed its "Strategy Toward 2000 and Beyond," and trained some 6,000 national programme scientists and technicians. Also, to reflect its full scope of activities, IRTP was redesignated the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER) in 1989. INGER today is the largest single pathway for distributing, exchanging, and testing new rice varieties and elite breeding lines in the developing world. IRRI therefore entered its fourth decade as a partner in a growing global community of national rice research systems, and facing a far more complex rice-farming world (see Chapter 2).
At the time of the Third External Review in 1987, IRRI's research was organized and managed through 13 disciplinary research departments, and employed some 72 internationally recruited staff (IRS) (62 core and ten complementary), and 2,300 nationally recruited staff (NRS) in its core and complementary programmes as of 31 December 1987. Since then, IRRI's research management has evolved to a project-based system implemented through a matrix involving five ecosystem-based research programmes and eight disciplinary-based divisions which were reduced to six in 1993. In 1992, when the Fourth EPMR took place, IRRI employed 81 IRS (61 core and 20 complementary) and 1,787 NRS. In 1997, IRRI employed 67 IRS (52 core, three seconded from or in partnership with other institutes, and 12 in non-agenda bilateral country/regional programmes), five affiliate scientists, 19 project and visiting scientists, and 849 NRS.
IRRI's role today and in the decades ahead is defined by its goal, objectives, and guiding principles.
Goal: Improved well-being of present and future generations of rice farmers and consumers, particularly those with low incomes.
Objectives: To (a) generate and disseminate rice-related knowledge and technology of short- and long-term environmental, social and economic benefit; and (b) help enhance national rice research systems.
The achievement and the relevance of IRRI's work depend largely on partnerships and information exchange with farming communities, national scientists, extension and development workers, and policymakers.
Role and responsibility: IRRI's role as part of an international scientific community is to contribute worldwide to the improvement of rice technology and maintenance of the natural resource base, and to the development of human resources in research and related activities. National governments are responsible for the formulation of appropriate agricultural research policies. IRRI's role is to draw attention to the socioeconomic and policy research results that are relevant to the establishment of such policies, and that will help in achieving the goals of both national governments and IRRI.
Guiding principles: To be an effective research organization, IRRI believes that it must provide appropriate support to talented and dedicated scientists through modem management principles and procedures. IRRI management therefore aims to provide:
· a research environment conducive to innovation, creativity, and excellence;· a multicultural, institute-wide social system that encourages all staff members to learn from one another, to share resources and knowledge, and to freely exchange ideas and information;
· management policies that encourage open communication in all directions and that continue to promote standards of scientific integrity - which include moral accountability, honesty, commitment, enthusiasm, and cost consciousness;
· decentralized management based on visible leadership, interactive problem analysis, and shared responsibility;
· transparency in all research undertakings;
· compensation levels based on performance, fully competitive with market standards.
IRRI expects to maintain several important global functions relating to rice research well into the 21st century. Beyond IRRI's lifetime in its present form, a politically neutral and commercially disinterested clearinghouse will continue to be needed to lead a global rice knowledge network. Its main functions could be: to house the base collection of the world's rice germplasm and to perform the many evaluation, research, preservation, and service functions that this responsibility entails; and to collect, evaluate, select, and make accessible information on current rice research and development programmes, rice and rice-related research results, and global rice research resources (human, financial, physical). Such a future role needs much consultation with its partners.
Over a relatively short period, of time the knowledge of the sequence of the rice genome will be completed and will be combined with efficient, cultivar-independent methods of gene transfer to give subsequent generations of rice scientists and breeders the power to understand how some 25,000 rice genes work together to promote growth, self-defense, and reproduction in the face of environmental change in the world. IRRI will endeavour to have access to the largest collection of isolated rice genes of known function, and to alter this system in beneficial ways, including allelic variants derived from the existing germplasm collection and novel variants created by gene technology This intellectual property will be freely available to NARS and on mutually beneficial terms to the private sector to enable new or modified traits to be introduced at will.
The 1994-98 MTP was guided by IRRI: Toward 2000 and Beyond (the 1989 Strategic Plan revised in 1993), in which IRRI affirmed its detailed strategic objectives:
· to increase rice production efficiency and sustainability in all major rice-growing environments through interdisciplinary research;· to ensure the relevance of IRRI research and the complementarily of international and national research efforts through close collaboration with national programmes;
· to generate and disseminate rice-related knowledge and technology of short- and long-term environmental, social, and economic benefits; and
· to help enhance national rice research systems.
In meeting these objectives, IRRI's MTP of 1994-98 proposed a further evolution from a disciplinary, department-based approach to a multidisciplinary, programme-based approach to activities, implemented through a matrix management system. All activities were organized into projects, with explicit objectives, outputs, milestones, and budgeting for human, capital, and financial resources. A significant feature of IRRI: Toward 2000 and Beyond, and the MTPs of 1990-94 and 1994-98, was the re-organization of the Institute research into five ecosystem-based programmes (Irrigated, Rainfed Lowland, Rainfed Upland, Flood-prone, Cross-ecosystem), and five international service programmes (Germplasm Conservation, Dissemination and Evaluation, Information and Knowledge Exchange, Training, Crop and Resource Management Network, National Research Services).
The 1994-98 MTP was therefore designed to produce results that would help balance the need for ever-greater food production, at prices affordable to consumers and profitable to farmers, against some very real concerns about protecting natural resources and the environment for future generations. IRRI articulated these into its five Ps - People, Permanency, Productivity, Protection, and Partnership. The Institute's activities to meet its objectives were organized into 27 projects in research and 14 projects in international services. While most project activities were done at IRRI headquarters in Los Baños, The Philippines, this MTP saw a significant devolution of work through formalized collaboration such as consortia and networks to IRRI's NARS partners. IRRI's 1994-98 MTP was finalized after a strong consultative process and a formal research prioritization process, during which all stakeholder groups participated in reviewing the proposed activities and direction of the plan.
IRRI introduced the concepts of "mega projects" and "new frontier projects" in the 1994-98 MTP to, respectively, address the issues of impact by selected projects through scaling up in size whilst maintaining focus, and the issue of high-risk research with high payoff potential in science. An example of a mega project is to raise the irrigated rice yield plateau through approaches such as the "New Plant Type". New frontier research is exemplified by activities to exploit allelopathy for weed control and to assess opportunities for nitrogen fixation in rice.
IRRI continued to concentrate on its global commodity role in rice during this MTP, but devoted substantial resources to natural resource management research through its ecosystem-based programming. It responded to TAC's request for it to take leadership on ecoregional activities in Asia, and implemented an initiative with its NARS, ARO, and NGO partners to develop new models for natural resource management in the humid tropics where rice is a major component of landscapes. IRRI also responded to TAC-recommended shifts in its core activities by increasing its resources allocated to the conservation and management of natural resources (28% of budget in 1994), increasing its germplasm enhancement and breeding activities (34% in 1994), decreasing work on production systems development and management (15% in 1994), increasing work on socioeconomic, public policy, and public management research (8% in 1994), and decreasing institution building (16% in 1994). As a result of these shifts, the 1994-98 MTP featured significant increases in activities relating to prebreeding using biotechnology, biodiversity conservation and management of genetic and ecological resources, social aspects of crop and pest management, and devolution of training courses to NARS partners:
IRRI's current MTP is based on its revised (1996) strategic plan IRRI Toward 2020. As a part of the planning process for the current MTP, national agricultural research leaders from major Asian rice-growing countries assessed the scenario of rice supply and demand balances over the next decade and prioritized their research needs and their expectations from IRRI.
For this MTP, IRRI proposes to implement the research and research-related activities through 31 projects under seven programmes. Besides continuing the five rice ecosystem-based research programmes, the international research activities and services are consolidated into two new programmes entitled 'Rice Genetic Resources: Conservation, Safe Delivery, and Use' and 'Accelerating the Impact of Rice Research'. These programmes will implement the CGIAR research-related undertakings of Saving biodiversity' and 'Strengthening national programmes'. The Plan discontinued a number of research activities and included four new projects entitled 'Increasing water-use efficiency in rice culture', 'Addressing gender concerns in rice research and technology development', 'Rice - a way of life for the next generation of rice farmers', and 'Implementing ecoregional approaches to improve natural resource management in Asia'. The project on water-use efficiency will integrate the efforts of breeders, water resource engineers, weed scientists, agronomists, and social scientists to address the growing labour scarcity and the looming global water crisis. Some of this work forms part of the Systemwide activities on water.
IRRI continues to have in its research portfolio a number of new frontier projects with low probability of success but a high pay-off, if successful. Examples are the hunt for an apomixis gene, assessing opportunities for nitrogen fixation, developing a perennial rice plant, and incorporating more micronutrients in rice. These new frontier projects require 3.3% of IRRI's internationally recruited staff time, and are financed from restricted funds. Almost all of the work is done in developed country ARI laboratories undertaking basic work not always related to rice. IRRI's programmes are implemented through a two-dimensional matrix to increase opportunities for interdisciplinary relevance and disciplinary excellence in the research, and to reflect the need to respond directly to the needs of IRRI's major partners (NARS).
IRRI plans to carry out its activities with 68 core and four non-agenda IRS by the year 2000. The allocation of resources by CGIAR activity is: 42% for Increasing Productivity; 26% for Protecting the Environment; 7% for Saving Biodiversity; 8% for Improving Policies; and 17% for Strengthening NARS. Of the total resources, 94% are allocated to Asia, and 6% to other regions. In Sub-Saharan Africa, IRRI focuses on the Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa region as WARDA has responsibility for West Africa. Building on 14 years of successful collaboration with Madagascar and over two decades of support to the region through INGER, IRRI is working with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) to establish a regional rice network. This network will draw on the knowledge and experience of IRRI and the Asian NARS, principally through the Rainfed Lowland and Upland Consortia. WARDA is also a partner in this initiative, sharing expertise and experience from West Africa. In addition, WARDA and IRRI have agreed to take joint responsibility for the management of INGER-Africa and to collaborate in strategic research and training for Sub-Saharan Africa.
IRRI is a convening centre for the 'ecoregional programme' called 'An Ecoregional Approach to Research and Development in the Humid/Subhumid Tropics and Subtropics of Asia; and has been requested to lead the Nutrient Management thrust of the Systemwide Programme on Rice-Wheat Systems for the Indo-Gangetic Plains. In addition, IRRI participates in five of the Systemwide Programme on Rice - Wheat Systems for the Indo-Genetic Plains. In addition, IRRI participates in five other Systemwide programmes.
IRRI uses an interdisciplinary approach to address high-priority problems in all rice ecosystems. IRRI's matrix management system balances mission-oriented objectives with disciplinary depth. Because it contains the research consortia, the matrix enables the Institute to respond to the new agroecological zone concept of the CGIAR while maintaining its basic organizational structure and programmes. The projects outlined for the MTP have defined milestones and verifiable outputs to ensure quality and to monitor the impact of research. In addition, the divisions have developed a strong research capacity in specific areas (referred to as divisional thrusts). According to IRRI, these constitute the areas of scientific excellence of the Institute.
The research planning process, for both programmes and divisions, provides a framework for monitoring and evaluating progress. The progress indicators and the means of verification identified during the project formulation process provide the basis for ongoing internal review and evaluation of the research programmes. A programme of divisional excellence brings external peers to assist in the continued improvement of staff scientific skills and research quality.
3.5.1 Partnership Strategy
3.5.2 A Brief History
3.5.3 IRRI's Partnerships Today
The Panel considers it appropriate that IRRI's unique role in partnerships is highlighted, for it is a story worth telling. We begin with an overview of the strategy (section 3.5.1), followed by a brief history (3.5.2), and a section (3.5.3) on IRRI's partnerships today. The history is very interesting, for it relates to the evolution of international agricultural research partnerships in general, since many such partnerships had their origin following IRRI's establishment and - along with CIMMYT's similar successes in wheat - IRRI's early successes with the new rices in Asia and Latin America.
IRRI bases its partnership strategy on its capacities and strengths in rice research, its unique global and international research vision, its recognized record in rice science, its impact, its knowledge of Asian rice production systems, and its well established linkages with NARS, ARIs, and - increasingly - with private sector research. Within that context, in its own words, "IRRI invites the international community to forge a common, coherent, and focused research and technology development agenda within the international research continuum".
IRRI argues that its unique role in partnerships stems from its: (i) long relationships with rice-growing countries and familiarity with their rice culture and science; (ii) ability to move freely and build bridges with NARS in exchanging information, knowledge, and methodologies; (iii) ability to produce 'international public goods' that reach beyond national boundaries; (iv) tradition of science and scientific publication that gains the respect of ARIs, and (v) increasing capacity to link public and private research to obtain technology and to integrate rice knowledge for use by farmers.
Partnership mechanisms include bilateral arrangements with NARS (e.g., country programmes to strengthen NARS, bilateral collaboration with strong NARS) and ARIs (strategic and frontier research); networks for research, information exchange, and technology transfer; and research consortia. Networks and consortia are governed by steering committees and biennial work plans are framed within formal memoranda of agreement. IRRI is aided in partnerships with NARS by the Council of Rice Research in Asia (CORRA), which consists of the directors general of agricultural research institutions in the main rice-growing countries.
Research networks and consortia contain structured arrangements with NARS and ARIs, in which multidisciplinary and multilocational research can be prioritized, planned, executed, and evaluated. Consortium sites serve as centres of excellence for interdisciplinary research on key international problems, including those related to natural resource management and global change. Technology delivery networks include INGER and CREMNET.
At the international level, IRRI embraces the concept of gaining efficiency within the CGIAR through Systemwide activities. IRRI has carefully selected those Systemwide activities where it has significant skills and experience to contribute, or where its goals and those of its NARS and IARC partners can benefit from membership. It is a founding member of three Systemwide programmes: (i) genetic resources; (ii) water management; and (iii) participatory breeding, natural resource management, and gender analysis. It also participates in the Systemwide programme on integrated pest management where FAO is an essential partner linking IPMNet to regional technology delivery mechanisms. In addition to these, IRRI is the implementing centre for the ecoregional programme for the humid and subhumid tropics and subtropics of Asia and continues its role as a partner in the rice-wheat consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains.
The relationship with ARIs to capture and focus cutting-edge research is developed primarily through "shuttle research" programmes. These include short-term exchange of scientists, advanced degree research, sabbatical leaves, and reciprocal appointments as adjunct faculty/staff.
Two new partnership approaches are being adopted. The first is with the NGO community, where collaboration centres on priorities for research and "feedback" in evaluating new technology as well as the knowledge needs of farmers. The second is with the private sector, which has become important in producing new proprietary technologies and methods relating to rice improvement, and in developing and testing new materials, machines or products. Both public and private sector R&D efforts have much to offer in partnerships to advance rice technologies.
IRRI has been a pioneer in forging partnerships in international research, first with public partners, including NARS, then increasingly with ARIs, and recently with the private sector. Since IRRI's inception in 1960, agricultural research has become international, and IRRI has been in the centre of many of these developments. A brief review of the situation in 1960 when IRRI was established is in order.
For most of human history, improvements in agriculture have come slowly and with difficulty. Before World War II, almost all increases in production came by expansion of cultivated land, while yield growth was slow and barely perceptible. After World War II, developed countries, with their own innovations and using materials and knowledge at hand, achieved faster yield improvement and eventually yield takeoff. Since 1945, profound agricultural change has resulted, so much so that during the past fifty years the greatest agricultural transformation in history has taken place. IRRI has contributed greatly to that transformation by matching developments achieved in temperate crops with similar developments in the major food crop of the tropics, rice.
When IRRI was founded, international collaboration was based on individual contact, even in developed countries. In the developing world, it was sporadic and lacking in critical mass, and not truly international in the sense of that term today.
IRRI's formation changed the picture dramatically, largely due to IR8 and IR5 varieties released in the 1960s. At that time, many persons doubted that a small research institute in The Philippines, no matter how well staffed, equipped, and funded, could make a difference in tropical rice. But two factors - high yield potential of the new semi-dwarf rices, and the almost-simultaneous arrival in Asia of high-yielding semi-dwarf wheats from Mexico's joint programme with the Rockefeller Foundation (parts of which were re-formed in 1966 as CIMMYT) - showed agriculture's potential to boost growth and development.
In the late 1960s, IRRI had gained an early reputation in Asia through its new high-yielding varieties. But, in particular, it needed to engage the outstanding rice scientists in Japan, Taiwan, China, and India in tropical indica rice research. IRRI also began with bilateral arrangements with individual countries, often funded by development agencies, to help improve national rice research capacity. Through its international staff, IRRI already had contacts with some national programme leaders, and through the NARS with Asian farmers. In this way, IRRI began to develop new ways to work with NARS.
In addition to sharing germplasm, IRRI introduced itself to NARS by holding production training courses and providing scholarships and fellowships for scholars from rice-growing countries to study at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (now UPLB) while doing their research work at IRRI. Workshops and conferences brought scientists and leaders to IRRI to see ongoing research, meet IRRI scientists, and form views on modes of collaboration. Germplasm distribution allowed NARS scientists to grow the new materials under their own conditions. Over time, former trainees, scholars, and other 'alumni' of IRRI formed a backbone of collaboration across Asia, and elsewhere.
In the meantime, IRRI's and CIMMYT's dramatic successes inspired national policy makers and scientists working in other crops to ask for other international centres to be established. Scientists and leaders sought ways to cooperate on global research problems. Plans were made and measures were taken to collect and preserve global collections of important crops. International donors, including bilateral development assistance agencies, private foundations, international development agencies, and international development banks came together to determine how international agricultural research could be placed on a firmer financial and institutional footing, resulting in 1971 in the formation of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Thus, just a little more than a decade after IRRI was formed as the first international agricultural research centre (IARC), the CGIAR found itself supporting a growing global network of new IARCs modeled after IRRI. What began in 1960 as a foundation-supported, small research institute in the Philippines had inspired, in just over a decade, a global system of IARCs supported by the CGIAR, plus a number of other IARC look-alike institutions. Truly, IRRI represented a new paradigm in international agricultural research.
IRRI as a Peer or Mentor. Like most other research institutions, IRRI would probably prefer to work in peer R & D relationships because they are more productive, direct, mostly scientist-to-scientist, and usually involve common scientific understanding of the problems faced and their possible solutions. Such collaboration between peers is especially important for IARC scientists who work in institutions that are thinly staffed in each discipline, and where an entire senior staff complement may not exceed that of a university department in industrialized countries.
So peer relationships are desirable and needed, and IRRI pursues them when it can. However, some national programmes with which IRRI works are as yet unable to engage in full peer relationships. Hence, IRRI often finds itself in a mentor position with some NARS, and may engage in bilateral efforts to improve the capacity of a NARS to identify and solve important problems. Some countries which IRRI has assisted in the past have now reached peer relationship status in a few areas of rice research, while others have become peers in many areas of research. However, there still are NARS that continue to need assistance. The unevenness in NARS capability affects IRRI's partnership strategies, and, further, can cause misunderstanding in cases where IRRI's operating modes or styles with different partner countries are compared.
Networks. Networks were an early means to link NARS with IRRI by using participatory planning, execution, and evaluation. Some began as information exchange or material exchange efforts, but with time, gradually evolved into research consultation or collaborative research networks. Networks have the difficulty that peer/non-peer institutions are often linked in the same network, thereby creating situations where the work pace may be set by the slowest member. IRRI has helped some of its networks to evolve to where NARS leadership and planning have become the norm Networks can help ensure training of national scientists in new techniques of research and analysis and in their application In this way, network-type training can help build national research capacities.
Research Consortia. Early in this decade, IRRI began to form research consortia to link NARS research capacity with that of IRRI to solve important regional problems through multi-country collaboration. Consortia provide ways to conduct strategic and applied research by sharing research responsibilities according to each partner's interests and capabilities, but it appears that to be effective, consortia require peer relationships among NARS and with IRRI. IRRI has three Rice Ecosystem Consortia, a new one for Irrigated Rice, plus one for Rainfed Lowland Rice and another for Upland Rice. The Panel commends IRRI for its consortium approach, and for the establishment of a network of consortium sites for strategic research to study matters affecting productivity and food security in Asia.
Advanced Research Institutes (ARIs). IRRI needs relationships with ARIs in industrialized countries and the NARS, and their means are varied and innovative. IRRI uses shuttle research and facilities sharing approaches with key NARS and ARI scientists who spend periods each year at IRRI in jointly planned collaborative research. Special research efforts with France and Japan have helped to stimulate shuttle research with ARIs in these countries, as has the network on rice biotechnology. IRRI also has effective shuttle research arrangements with NARS scientists in key areas, some from ARIs in the NARS.
The Panel considers shuttle research and facilities sharing to be innovative and effective ways for IRRI to gain needed scientific input and collaboration in critical research areas. NARS and ARI scientists also benefit by having access for periods of time to essential equipment, facilities, and expertise to carry out high-priority collaborative research. NARS scientists have high praise for such programmes that allow them to conduct research at IRRI that requires specialized facilities or equipment. Such collaboration means high-calibre field studies can be coupled with strategic laboratory and glasshouse research that can be done best on a shuttle basis between IRRI and NARS or ARI research facilities.
Council of Rice Research in Asia (CORRA). A recent development in partnerships has been the establishment of CORRA, the Council of Rice Research in Asia. This Council, made up of the directors general of rice research institutes in Asia, advises IRRI on its partnership strategy and arrangements. The Panel met with the CORRA leaders in September, 1997. CORRA leaders expressed their whole-hearted support for INGER and its work and the continuing need for rice research. One of the Directors stated that the Consortium approach has improved NARS collaboration, and that it fostered partnerships rather than "choosing from a menu". The Directors clearly appreciated IRRI's role in convening and sponsoring workshops and symposia on important topics, and timely publication of the results. They believe that globalization of research will depend on NARS scientists being able to attend scientific meetings. They were especially concerned that IRRI's capacity to provide strategic rice research may be less than is needed. A specific area mentioned was raising the yield frontier.
Bridging Role of IRRI. NARS often look to IRRI to help them identify new opportunities, tools, and methodologies in research. Biotechnology research has been one of those, as are methodologies such as GIS and modelling. Such a 'bridging' role is much appreciated by NARS.
'Lifeline' role for individual NARS scientists. IRRI's contacts with, and its help and support for, individual scientists are very important in their individual research careers and professional development. For scientists working in isolation, the chance to be linked in an international effort related to their research interest provides a kind of lifeline for motivation and job satisfaction. Benefits include: receiving publications; attending scientific workshops and symposia; shuttle research, facilities sharing, participating in INGER (see Chapter 5.3.1), CREMNET (see Chapter 5.3.2), SysNet, or one of the Ecosystem Symposia; all of these are much appreciated by individual scientists. Network monitoring tours and other travel experiences provide opportunities for scientists to validate their own experience elsewhere, allowing comparisons to be made, and possibly needed corrections in their own research. Monitoring tours also provide a quality incentive and assurance system for the trials and individual researchers to be visited.
The enabling role of IRRI. Its ability to recognize new trends and to stimulate and energize collaboration is needed and appreciated by NARS. Also, IRRI has made it possible for NARS scientists with common interests to come together to prepare training materials, plan collaborative research, and other such efforts. The Panel commends the enabling role of IRRI as an essential part of its work.
Partnerships with the private sector. Private sector partnerships have come to the fore at IRRI, especially with the growth and developments in rice biotechnology. IRRI has issued a policy paper entitled. Policy on Partnership with the Private Sector, in which IRRI lists the benefits it can derive from such partnerships, all of them relating to access to: (i) technology and expertise; (ii) products; (iii) training; (iv) manufacturing or production capabilities; (v) economies of scale; and (vi) delivery systems for knowledge-intensive research (see Chapter 6.2).
The Panel was impressed with the range and scope of partnerships at IRRI. Partnerships are more than a slogan at the Institute, and it is serious about nurturing and improving them. The enabling and lifeline roles of IRRI are important, and probably under-appreciated. The Panel applauds IRRI's willingness to experiment and innovate in this regard. At first glance, the consortia may appear to be another name for networks, but it appears they are something more than that, in that they allow peer, multi-country collaboration within a strategic/applied/adaptive research continuum to work on important global problems of rice. The Panel commends IRRI for its long-time interest in partnerships in rice research, for its wide array of efforts, and for its willingness to adjust and find new ways to make partnerships more effective.
The 1992 External Programme and Management Review made six programme-related recommendations, and five management-related recommendations. IRRI's response to these recommendations was initially reported to TAC. In 1994, IRRI reported on the implementation of these recommendations to the Programme Committee of the Board. The following is an assessment of the current status of those recommendations.
Of the six programme-related recommendations, IRRI has implemented three in full (4.1, 5.2, 5.3), and three partially (3.1, 3.2, 5.1). With respect to the five management-related recommendations, one was implemented in full (8.2) and four partially (7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.1). Appendix V provides a summary of the action taken, and the justification of the partial response where appropriate. The Panel comments on IRRI's actions in the relevant sections of this Report.
