How Does ISDC Accomplish its Workpan?
Since ISDC member time is limited and IAES is a small office, IAES has developed a roster of subject matter experts (SMEs) to help deliver its mandate.
The roster allows an easily accessible pool of SMEs across agriculture and food systems who can supplement the specific expertise skills of IAES and ISDC. These SMEs are contracted for specific time-bound projects.
IAES maintains a roster policy that governs the external expert selection. An open and competitive process is periodically launched via a vacancy announcement to ensure its appropriateness to evolving CGIAR needs. A selection panel reviews and interviews candidates who are then, if eligible, placed on the IAES roster for a period of three years, with the possibility of renewal.
Each SME is vetted for IAES conflict of interest, which is revisited before the commissioning of projects. Below are some examples of how SMEs by the ISDC and the independent Evaluation function.
The help from SMEs has proven critical in allowing the delivery of the IAES workplan since its inception. The roster selection model presents a more resource-intensive upfront effort, mitigated by an expertise database that can cater for broader workplan needs when compared to a model that would mandate a specific call for each IAES activity. As of January 2025, there are more than 180 SMEs on our roster.
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