ISDC Terms of Reference
ISDC follows a Terms of Reference (ToR) approved by Systems Council for the Council, Chair, and Vice Chair. According to the ToR, the following operational principles guide ISDC:
🟤 Independence of advice, being neither Funders, members of the System Council, nor implementers of CGIAR research programs and/or platforms and avoiding other potential conflicts of interest;
🟤 Improved efficiency, with a view to providing advice that maximizes CGIAR’s impact while reducing overall costs;
🟤 Improved communication, such that various assessments and evaluation workstreams in the System are aligned with CGIAR Business Plan cycles;
🟤 Improved and systematic linkage between science and development through innovation and effective partnerships, such that innovation and partnerships are embedded in all aspects of CGIAR’s advisory services; and
🟤 Higher ownership and improved coordination of the advice by the System itself, such that the advice provided by the advisory services needs to be communicated to and formally discussed by the System Council on a regular basis.
ISDC’s mandate includes the following activities:
🟫 Foresight work to inform CGIAR’s research strategy
🟫 Horizon scanning to inform the research portfolio
🟫 Priority setting exercises and analyses:
Conducting rigorous, independent analytical work on priorities and trade-offs,
Making use of state-of-the-art knowledge from foresight, horizon scanning and
Other commissioned activities
🟫 Guidance for periodic proposal assessment processes
Explore the ToRs for ISDC, the Chair, and Vice Chair:
⏫Scroll up to see the results