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IRRI's bulletin from September 8-12, 2008 contains an interesting piece of news about its recently established Hybrid Rice Research and Development Consortium (HRDC). The inaugural seven-person Advisory Committee for the Consortium includes three members from the private sector: one from Bayer (Germany), one from JK Agri Genetics (India) and one from Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture (China/France). IRRI holds two spots, and the other two are taken by the Philippines Rice Research Institute and the China National Rice Research Institue. The Advisory Committe was established on May 1 2008 and each member of the committee holds a three-year term.

The Advisory Committee will have the following terms of reference:

* Screen applications for membership and recommend acceptance of membership to the
   IRRI director general.
* Review the annual HRDC work plan and budget for the approval of the IRRI director
   general.
* Determine and recommend the rates of annual membership contributions.
* Recommend to the IRRI director general the proper charges for accessing materials.
* Establish mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the operations and impact of the HRDC.
* Formulate policies and guidelines for the smooth implementation and management of
   the Consortium.

The Advisory Committee will be assited by a secretariat and will also participate in determining how the funds collected by the HRDC will be spent on research.

The information about the composition of the Committee is unfortuantely not up on the website for the HRDC, as far as we could tell. However there is some further information about the functioning of the Committee.

Bayer and other companies to oversee IRRI's hybrid rice consortium