Training and capacity building

Building capacity of agricultural research institutes in partner countries is one of ACIAR’s key priorities. With co-funding from AusAID since 2006, ACIAR has significantly increased the number of its postgraduate awards (known as the John Allwright Fellowships). The training program focuses on specialised training activities provided through postgraduate and research management fellowships and a small number of short courses that target specific cross-program issues.
The priority of the training program is to enhance the research capacity of partner country institutions through targeting individuals who are involved in ACIAR projects. Much of this is done in individual projects managed by individual research programs, through on-the-job training, where either developing-country scientists visit Australia or Australian specialists visit partner countries to present a training program on a specific technical subject.
ACIAR training activities include the following, with the first representing the main expenditure:

• postgraduate training, which mainly comprises John Allwright Fellowships for postgraduate study in Australia associated with specific ACIAR projects – a smaller number of awards support in-country postgraduate diploma and masters degree training associated with ACIAR projects in Papua New Guinea (at University of Technology, Lae) and the Pacific Islands (at University of the South Pacific, Suva and Apia);
• support for small in-country research projects for Fellowship returnees;
• research management training (John Dillon Memorial Fellowships);
• short-term ‘cross-program’ training courses.

For training activities in Indonesia, the training program works closely with institutional development advisors based in Bogor, who form part of the ACIAR-managed component of the Smallholder Agribusiness Development Initiative (SADI). In 2009–10, several training programs involved participants from ACIAR-SADI and other ACIAR programs.