Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Centre for Water Resources Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture Nepal Engineering College Tata Institute of Social Sciences Irrigation and Water Engineering Group
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
Research:
 
Research Programme of the CB Project
 
1. Introduction and background
 
  Innovative research includes the consolidation of research output into publications, skills and institutional capacity (‘research with an impact’). The research will focus on the question how to operationalize the notion of `integration’ through intensive field research, in concrete development intervention settings, in a comparative South Asian framework. This will train a generation of IWRM researcher-practitioners. Research and innovation thus is the key element of this capacity building project. ‘Innovation’ no longer refers only to adoption and diffusion of science-based knowledge, but has to be regarded as the establishment of new patterns of coordination between people, technical devices and natural phenomena. Technical and institutional innovations have to occur simultaneously in processes of networking, social learning and conflict management.
  All partner institutions have a long record of being involved in policy and intervention oriented projects funded by national governments, development agencies, and international donors. A few examples of such projects are included in the box below. Each South Asian partner institution will select three to five water resources management research projects that it is involved in and designate these for a specific focus on IWRM research/capacity building. This designation means that
 
a)
 IWRM Masters fellows under the project will conduct their field research in the context of these projects. This amounts to 160 pieces of masters’ level research.
 
b)
 New, specifically IWRM research activities will be developed in the context of these projects, to be conducted by professional researchers.
 
c)
 A framework for water resource user/stakeholder involvement in the research will be set up for definition of the research focus, participatory forms of data collection, and output and impact monitoring. The research is intended to develop towards a demand – driven research programme.
 
d)
 The selected project(s) will have a regional/area/basin focus so that concrete impacts can be achieved.
  The umbrella themes for the overall research programme of the project will be:
 
1.
 Water Resource Conflicts and Solutions in Peri-Urban Areas;
 
2.
 Livelihood Security Through Better Management of Droughts and Floods;
 
3.
 Institutional Innovation for IWRM: Community, State and Private Sector Interfaces.
  Each theme captures several dimensions of ‘integration’ that are part of the IWRM approach. The first focuses on one of the most defining development issues of the coming decades: urbanisation, or changing relations between rural and urban areas, including the issue of drinking water and sanitation. The second looks at poverty in the context of droughts and floods, the recurring extreme events that South Asia has to deal with, and that climate change is likely to exacerbate. The third looks at governance and institutional reform, perhaps the toughest of the IWRM challenges, and will focus on practical ways forward in this field at different levels of scale.”
 
2. Implementation process
 
The process to be followed for the formulation of research proposal for each PIs was discussed at the Partner Institution Meeting (PIM) held in Hyderabad from 13th to 14th July 2006. The consensus was to select a geographically delineated area (or river basin) to conduct the research programme for the PI rather than spread the resources available for scattered and individual research programmes.
 
The formulation process of the research programme for PIs should start with the appointment of PIs’ Research Programme Manager (PRM) who would coordinate the activities with the CB project (Research Programme Manager should be a permanent staff member of a PIs). Three brainstorming sessions planned (1st in Bangladesh on 20 August 2006, 2nd in Sri Lanka on 20th September 2006 and 3rd in Hyderabad 13th October 2006) would provide opportunities to discuss and improve the research proposals. This activity should be a collective undertaking of each partner institution. Therefore, staff who participates for the staff training workshops should be properly briefed by the colleagues who attended the preceding staff training. The PRM is expected to coordinate the entire process. It is anticipated to have a draft proposal of the research programme for each PIs by November 2006.
 
The draft proposals will have to be sent to the CB Project Office which will circulate them among the PIs. This process would help to identify areas where researchers from each PIs could work on similar themes in three countries and to learn from each others and help facilitate the improvement of research proposals through information sharing.

It is expected to discuss the final research proposals of each PIs in Chennai in February/March 2007 before implementation.
 
It is also agreed at the PIM, that a Partner Institutions Research Coordinator (PIRC) has to be appointed to each PIs. The tasks to be assigned and the profile of the person to be appointed are given in Annex-1. A staff of the CB Project is expected to make a representation at the Final Selection Board to select a Partner Institutions Research Coordinator (PIRC) since this person is supposed to liaise with the CB Project Office with regard to the research component on regular basis.
 
It was also agreed at the PIM to appoint a Research Advisory Committee (RAC) for each PIs. The services anticipated from such a committee are given in Annex-1. PI will decide the number of members to be appointed to the RAC.
 
Annex -1: Tasks/roles of Research Programme Manager (RPM), Partner Institutions Research Coordinator (PIRC), and Research Advisory Committee (RAC)
 
Terminology research component CB:

‘PI Research programme manager’ = the liaison person in the PI who will be the main active person in the formulation phase of the research proposal – the process till Feb/Mar 2007
 
‘PI Research coordinator’ = the person to be appointed to coordinate the implementation of the research component on a day-to-day basis (called the ‘post-doc’ in the CB document – a word that we will stop using in this context)
 
Tasks/profile PI Research Coordinator

This person is someone with a PhD degree, with experience in ‘integrative’ research, preferably as regards water resources. The PIRC should have good academic research skills, and publish on his own research work in the research programme, but should in addition have good communication and management/mediation skills. She/he has to be an ‘academic entrepreneur’ capable to facilitate several kinds of boundary crossing: among disciplines in the research team, between research and policy/practice as this is designed as ‘research with an impact’, and between researchers and stakeholders.
 
Tasks:
•
 Provide day-to-day guidance to the PhD fellows, in collaboration with the academic supervisors of the PhD fellows; organise and facilitate the ‘intervision’ process in the research team
•
 Organise and facilitate the process of stakeholder involvement in the research programme.
•
 Organise and facilitate interaction of the research activities with the policy & practice domain: assure ‘impact’ of the research
•
 Conduct own research in the programme and publish
•
 Do administrative and financial day-to-day coordination of the research component
•
 Liaise and interact with counterparts in other PIs.
 
The candidate could be a person with a PhD completed plus several years of research experience in a ‘problem solution’ context. S/he should have the ambition to build a career on interdisciplinary research, integrating natural and social science perspectives and approaches. S/he should be a self-confident academic and policy/practice ‘entrepreneur’ with strong diplomatic/mediation and communication skills.
 
The appointment will be for three years.
 
PI Research Advisory Committee

Each PI will constitute a PIRAC for the research component. This committee is meant perform the following roles:
 
•
 Members provide access to networks and organisations in the research area.
•
 Members provide expertise that is complementary to the expertise available in the PI.
•
 The members provide links with policy and practice, which can help to assure ‘impact’
•
 Members provide links with stakeholders groups/organisation
 
The PIRAC will act as a sounding board, and platform for discussion. It advises. Formal decision-making is located within the PI. PI will be represented in and convening the PIRAC.