Rather than rewarding good performance, variations in the amount of funding for individual researchers, teams, projects and programs are often a reflection of changing donor priorities, governmental budgetary pressures, or political considerations. Neither job security nor promotions are clearly linked to performance. Competitive funding mechanisms are one way of addressing these problems. Competitive grants can generate efficiencies and stimulate innovation by linking funding to performance. They are particularly useful in countries where the existing program funding is unable to provide dependable and timely funding for non-salary operational costs of research for those researchers who perform well.
Competitive funds can also increase relevance, if their governance is sufficiently demand-driven.
Request a copy . We are aware of three efforts that seek to inform policymakers on what is the appropriate role for competitive funding in agricultural research in developing countries and how competitive funding should be organized.