While many in the Northern Hemisphere may be preparing for a summer beach getaway, the Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC) will be heading to Edinburgh for its first in-person meeting of 2025. At the top of its agenda: finalizing the external review of 13 CGIAR Program and Accelerator Inception Reports. In an era of constrained funding and difficult trade-offs, rigorous quality assurance is essential to guide strategic priorities and ensure the most effective use of resources. Hence, ISDC designed a review process that ensures relevance, scientific credibility, legitimacy, and effectiveness.
Stemming from the CGIAR’s 2025–2030 Proposals
ISDC reviewed the proposals forming the CGIAR 2025–2030 Science and Innovation Portfolio in November 2024. At its meeting in December 2024, the System Council (i.e., the funders and country representatives) requested CGIAR to review the Inception Reports to ensure that identified gaps have been addressed. The Inception Reports have two primary goals:
- “provide a concise summary of the key, Inception Phase deliverables that management committed to in November 2024, with links to additional supporting resources; and
- demonstrate how management has addressed the guidance and feedback received from the SC, Integrated Partnership Board (IPB), and ISDC in their reviews of the September 2024 Program and Accelerator proposals and November 2024 Portfolio Narrative.”
The ISDC review will ensure that Inception Reports expand on and adjust the earlier reviewed proposed work and meet the requirements and expectations of SC. As part of ISDC’s terms of reference, research proposal reviews are an essential part of good governance and quality assurance, delivering benefits across CGIAR. The main benefit is an assurance that the best possible science is conducted to deliver the intended development outcomes. The reviews aim to guide funders’ investments in CGIAR research, ensuring they are well targeted and likely to succeed. ISDC is not a decision-making body of CGIAR, but an advisory body focused on science.
Using a Similar Review Approach with the Quality of Research for Development
The Quality of Research for Development in the CGIAR Context (Qo4RD [2020]) is a framework that facilitates CGIAR System-wide agreement on the nature and assessment of the quality of science. It is the guiding pillar for ISDC’s criteria to assess science. The review template uses 10 criteria that were adapted from previous reviews along with probing questions that crosscut among the four elements of QoR4D: relevance, scientific credibility, legitimacy, and effectiveness. The criteria will guide subject matter experts (SMEs) and ISDC members to reflect on and assess the Inceptions Reports.
In a condensed timeline of four weeks, one SME from the 2024 proposal review will be paired with an ISDC member for each Inception Report. This approach will enable retention of continuity, consistency, and existing knowledge. ISDC will use the completed review templates to then build consensus and draft a report during the Edinburgh meeting hosted by St. Andrew’s James Hutton Institute. Although ISDC is an eight-person Council, the consensus building meeting will include 10 members because of the staggering turnover of membership this year. The review teams are diverse in expertise, gender, and geography.
Reporting the Assessment
The ISDC report will be submitted to the System Council secretariat on 7 August for dissemination to IPB and CGIAR global leadership. Five days later, SC will receive the report and it will be posted online. ISDC cannot comment on the Inception Reports until completion of the external assessment.
