3rd Master Class in Research Management in Agriculture

Held at the Hyde Park Plaza Suites, Sydney

1-14 February 2004

Report

The Third Master Class in Research Management in Agriculture was held in Sydney, 1st – 14th February 2004. The organisation and management of the Class was a joint effort between the ATSE Crawford Fund and the Asia Centre of the University of New England. The participants of the Class were 20 senior agricultural research managers and scientists (including Directors of National Agricultural Institutes and Organisations) from Cambodia, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, People’s Republic of China, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. They included personnel from four CGIAR institutions – ICRAF, IWMI, CIFOR and CIAT.

Funding was obtained from ACIAR, AusAID, The CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program, ICRAF, IWMI, CIFOR, CIAT, UNICEF, The Kirkhouse Trust, The South Australian Committee of The ATSE Crawford Fund and core funding from the Master Class Program of The ATSE Crawford Fund.

The content of the Class was built on the two previous Research Management Classes in 2001 and 2002. The objectives were the same – to communicate to participants the major changes and developments that have occurred in recent years in the practice and management of strategic and applied research. The most significant change has been to replace the earlier research driven, disciplinary approach to a new research oriented paradigm that is client driven, output oriented, system approach requiring multidisciplinary research teams and successful collaboration between different organisations.

A number of changes were introduced into the program for this third Research Management Class. These included new topics, new approaches to the daily organisation and new resource people. Most presenters were asked to limit their formal address to 20 minutes, and to prepare a set of key questions for prior distribution to the participants to stimulate discussion. To focus participants on what had been achieved, the final session each day involved them writing down what they considered the three most important items of the day. These summaries were collated and distributed the next day so that participants had an ongoing feeling of the major issues presented and identified in interactive sessions.

On the first day, Professor John Lovett, former Executive Director GRDC asked the question “What is Research and why does it have to be managed”, putting the objectives of the Class into perspective. There was an increased focus during the Class on the Cooperative Research Centres as a model of research collaboration and comments from the participants have indicated their appreciation of the way this was used to stress the value of coordinated research projects involving different organisations.

There was also a greater emphasis on Research Evaluation and participants were able to get hands on experience of the DREAM model as well as take home the software for that procedure for economic impact assessment. May Fleming, an Extension Office of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture was able to provide first hand experience of negotiating results with stakeholders.

For the first time, a series of presentations focussed on some of the personal skills needed by research managers. These included ways of increasing the success rate of grant applications including the use of the Internet, time management and report writing.

On the final day, all participants presented a five-minute account of a research management topic chosen by them from a list provided by the coordinators. Each presentation was followed by discussion from other participants and the facilitators and in all cases, the time allocated ran out indicating the interest of all concerned in the work activities of the participants. The final address by Dr Paul Ferrar summarised the important outcomes of good research management in agriculture, focussing on Food, Health, Trade and Biosecurity.

Two excursions were arranged, one to the Royal Sydney Botanic Gardens and the other to the NSW Forests Research Institute at Pennant Hills. In addition, an afternoon forum on communication was held in the offices of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Martin Place in the Central Business District.

As in previous Classes we were able to enlist a highly skilled and experienced group of 28 resource people. Most hold or have held senior positions in national or international organisations and have long standing research management experience. Most have interacted in some way or another with agricultural production in developing countries. Many have carried out research programs that collectively include most of the countries represented by the participants. Hence, in addition to their specialist skills, they could bring their specialist experience to the interactive sessions involving the facilitators and the participants. Two evening special presentations by Dr Elizabeth Heij (CSIRO) and Dr Sue Meek, Commonwealth Gene Technology Regulator were particularly popular with the participants.

The comments by those participants who submitted an evaluation report on the Class are on the whole favourable and there are some interesting suggestions as to how the Class could be improved if held again.

Master Class certificates were presented to participants by Professor John Zillman at the formal class dinner on 12 February, 2004.

To see some pictures taken during the Master Class please follow the links in the program page.

The coordinators for the Master Class, Professor Ian Metcalfe and Professor Bruce Holloway would like to thank all individuals and organisations that made this first class such a success.