In 2024, CGIAR research portfolio for pooled funding—which currently comprises 30% of all CGIAR funding—went through a reorganization. The revised portfolio for 2025-30 resulted in 13 Science Programs, Accelerators, and Asset.
As part of ISDC’s terms of reference, ISDC provided feedback on the draft and final versions of the Portfolio Narrative, the companion document that essentially is the roadmap for the portfolio. In addition, ISDC conducted a moderated review of the 13 proposals using QoR4D as its backbone.
Reporting
- November 2024
- May 2024
- January 2024
The Process
Each proposal was reviewed by an independent and anonymous review team comprised of three external subject matter experts (SMEs), led by an ISDC member, and supported by the ISDC Secretariat, within the Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES). The ISDC Secretariat identified SMEs through a competitive roster enrollment that contains more than 200 social and biophysical scientists representing more than 50 countries. The ISDC Secretariat matched SMEs to proposals based on their expertise to each proposal review team, with one serving as a coordinator who aggregated and built a consensus among the team, working closely with the ISDC member proposal lead. The ISDC member lead vetted the matched SMEs prior to the reviews.
To adapt to this independent review and lessons learned from the 2021 assessment, ISDC developed condensed QoR4D criteria, resulting in 11 for Science Programs and 10 for Accelerators and Asset.
The Process Reviewer Composition and Diversity
Each team had a minimum of one social scientist. The composition was 43% female and 57% male, located across 20 countries, with 70% having a university affiliation. Diversity among the review teams was essential because of the cross-cutting goal of the Initiatives and five Impact Areas. The diversity of the reviewers explains, in part, the variance among the QoR4D scores of each review that can be found in the proposal reporting.
