Crawford Fund - Activities

Activities

The main activities of the Crawford Fund include awareness-raising to increase support for international agricultural research, the organisation of short-term practical training for agricultural researchers from developing countries, master classes for emerging research leaders, and two types of awards.

The Public Awareness Program includes an annual conference at Parliament House, Canberra. The annual conference focuses on a selected aspect of international agricultural research, showcasing eminent speakers and promoting an intensive round of high-level meetings and media publicity. Since 2000, conferences have included:

• Food, Water and War: Security in a World of Conflict (2000)
• Prosper or Perish: Asian Poverty and the Australian Economy (2001)
• Food for the Future: Opportunities for a Crowded Planet (2002)
• The Livestock Revolution: A Pathway from Poverty? (2003)
• Fish, Aquaculture and Food Security: Sustaining Fish as a Food Supply (2004)
• Forests, Wood and Livelihoods: Finding a Future for All (2005)
• Water for Irrigated Agriculture and the Environment: Finding a Flow for All (2006)
• Biofuels, Energy and Agriculture: Powering Towards or Away from Food Security? (2007)
• Agriculture in a Changing World (2008)
• World Food Security (2009)
• Biodiversity and World Food Security (2010)
• The Supermarket Revolution in Food: Good, Bad or Ugly for the World's Farmers, Consumers and Retailers? (2011)
• The Scramble for Natural Resources: More Food, Less Land? (2012)

The Crawford Fund supports a range of other activities designed to encourage public awareness of the importance of international agricultural research for development. The Fund supports the preparation of various publications. The Fund also organises other events such as meetings and conferences at the state level in Australia. For example, in 2011 the Crawford Fund sponsored a conference in Brisbane on the theme of 'A Food Secure World'. One of the aims of meetings of this kind is to provide the opportunity for eminent international speakers to address agricultural topics of global importance in Australia.

Since its establishment, the Crawford Fund has provided training to about 8,000 researchers, research managers and farmers in dozens of developing countries. Two kinds of training are provided:

• About 25 training awards are made each year to enable individual researchers from developing countries to undertake customised training in Australia in specific aspects of a wide range of topics in agriculture, forestry and horticulture.

• Additionally, about 30 multi-participant training ourses are conducted each year either in developing countries or Australia, covering a wide range of topics in agriculture and forestry by teams of experts from CSIRO, universities, state agriculture departments, etc.

Approximately 40% of training awards and training courses are linked to ACIAR projects.

The Crawford Fund also conducts Master Classes. These are high-level courses aimed at mid-level researchers and emerging research managers who undertake a short period of training (typically two weeks) on particular research issues. The maximum number of participants in any one class is set at approximately 20 people. Participants are hand-picked, as are the trainers.

The Crawford Fund provides two prestigious training fellowships, the Derek Tribe Award and the Crawford Fund Fellowship, from a private donor. Awarded biennially, the Derek Tribe Award is presented to a senior researcher from a developing country. The Crawford Fellowship is presented to a young researcher from a developing country.