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Agricultural research seems to be the oldest form of organized research in the world. Agricultural research can be broadly defined as any research activity aimed at improving productivity and quality of crops by their genetic improvement, better plant protection, irrigation, storage methods, farm mechanization, efficient marketing, and a better management of resources.

The history of all nations began over half a million years ago, when different groups of primitive people left Africa to populate the rest of the world. It took almost that much time before could initiate the process of domestication of plants, in order to feed a growing, sedentary population. In fact, this process began .10,000 years ago, because 70,000–13,000 years ago, most of the water was in the form of ice sheets (glaciations) that covered the current temperate regions, while the tropics were dry (Goldammer and Seibert, 1989).

Agricultural researchers identify and apply new science, novel approaches and innovations that could generate research breakthroughs and improve impacts to support the development of the agricultural sector. During the past few decades, there has been an expansion of the research agenda along the entire research-fordevelopment continuum, with farm- and policy-level implications. The goals and objectives of research have broadened from primarily food production to include sustainable resource management, equity, gender, health, and environmental concerns.

Agricultural research should be equally driven by society’s interests and researcher’s opportunity-creating capabilities, because economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental needs, especially in poor rural areas, should be addressed by the ingenuity of scientists orientated within integrated, problemfocused interdisciplinary research initiatives. Problem-solving research requires inputs from different parties across the entire value-chain that brings their perspectives, and maybe changes their views during a participatory consultative process in which stakeholders (including scientists) engage in practices of joint inquiry, collaborative and active learning, and adaptive management. Stakeholders of a research agenda are drawn from government (national, regional, and local), civil society (including farmers’ organizations, nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], and public concern groups), and the private sector (particularly small to medium sized enterprises). Collectively they should own the process for establishing the complex and evolving research agendas required for today’s agriculture. Transparency for priority setting and accountability through monitoring and evaluation are required to ensure an effective research undertaking whether international, regional, national, or local.

The researcher with his/her team of technician(s) forms the basic unit of a research department. Often a researcher with professional and managerial skills of leadership forms a working group, on a specific range of projects integrated within a general concept. Researchers or research groups operate within a department.

Leadership is the ability to give focus and vision to others, clearly identifying goals to which others also aspire, thus increasing productivity, efficiency, and impact. Leadership functions at different levels and in different capacities. It is different from management or administration. It is visionary, but also has to be practical, and it operates at many different levels within organisations. Leadership of small numbers of people can be as important as leading many hundreds or thousands of people. In fact, the leadership of a large or complex organisation cannot usually function well unless there are other leaders at a lower level able to implement the leader’s vision by leading smaller groups of people towards common goals.

Ethics is a field of study looking at moral standards that govern the appropriate conduct for an individual or group of individuals. Simply, ethics can be defined as a method, procedure, or perspective, or norms of conduct that distinguishes between acceptable and unacceptable, right or wrong, behaviour. In the field of ethics, the term “bioethics”, first coined by Potter in 1970, is a relatively new term when compared to medical ethics and the philosophy of science. Potter proposed a new discipline as “the science of survival,” which “would attempt to generate wisdom, the knowledge of how to use knowledge for social good from a realistic knowledge of man’s biological nature and of the biological world”. In 1998 Macer proposed a simpler definition by referring to bioethics as “love of life” involving analysis of the benefits and risks arising out of the moral choices affecting living organisms for the good of individuals, the environment, and society. Today, bioethics is an integrated discipline involving ethical analysis of participants that could be affected by decisions taken. Ethical enquiries address ethics and life sciences connecting new developments in technology, biotechnology, medicine, biology, and environmental sciences with social sciences like philosophy, religion, law, and public policies.

Efficient management of public funds is an unending endeavor. Efficient management of publicly funded agricultural research is no exception. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are tools to this end. Unfortunately, studies that specifically quantify ICT’s contribution to the methodology of research management, research effectiveness, dissemination of research results, and feedback to enable research prioritizing are impoverished in empirical details and economic results. Management of publicly funded agricultural research again is not an exception. Regardless, the purpose of this review is an attempt to enhance the understanding of the contribution and impact ICT had and has on the management of publicly funded agricultural research. Hopefully, it will elicit future empirical work to quantify ICT’s contribution to research management, improve ICT’s effectiveness, and provide pointers for prioritizing essential research in the future.

In many countries, including the United States and Israel, governments provide agricultural research services to many small farm holders. The governments of these countries operate their own research institutes and laboratories where management tries to guide scientists in conducting research and development (R&D) for the benefit of the producers, consumers, and the society as a whole. Traditionally, the benefit of agricultural research was evaluated by measuring it (Grilliches, 1960.) This evaluation was of little help for decision- making process of agricultural R&D management. I thought that the management of the private sector might do it differently and maybe better. Agricultural Research laboratories are involved in different types of R&D. Basic as well as applied, improved production processes as well as new or improved products. The agricultural R&D portfolio includes disciplines such agricultural engineering and food technology as well as plant physiology and genetics, and projects that will reach commercial application in a short or a long time.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research – the CGIAR – was founded in 1971 as a strategic alliance among governments, international and regional organizations and private foundations. Its aim was to encourage a greater research effort in order to increase and improve the quality of the agricultural input in developing countries and thus to raise standards of living of the populations. It was triggered by a series of events, which were mainly the natural consequence after many colonies regained their independence in the 1960s.