5. Objectives of the 40 Year Review
This review aims to assess and quantify BARD’s historic and cumulative impact in terms of academic outcomes as well as the resulting agricultural applications. This includes both applied know-how with limited commercial impact, as well as projects that have proven and achieved significant commercial and economic impact.
The organizational structure of BARD and its evaluation mechanisms themselves were not evaluated for the purpose of this current review. These were meticulously defined and reviewed closely during the process of the 20-year evaluation conducted in 2000, as were the values and assets of all collaborative research projects, review panels process in both countries, TAC activities and responsibilities, and the effectiveness of administrative process. Since then, BARD has continued to adhere to the original selection criteria for proposals, such as scientific merit, benefit to agriculture, mode of collaboration and probability of success. At present, special emphasis is placed on the mode of the collaboration, and the anticipated benefits to agriculture. BARD’s comprehensive and rigorous process to select the best proposals in every round was highly regarded by the 20-year review committee, and this process has been maintained consistently since.