The implementation of the DURAS Competitive Grants Scheme (CGS) is a very insightful experience. It has afforded both the Project Office and the various stakeholders involved in the 12 projects a rich experience and handful of lessons learnt along the way.
However, some more effort needs to be done in order to increase the opportunities for learning from these experiences, as well as sharing the learning and building a wider body of knowledge on and further understanding and appreciation of the need to involve various actors in the agricultural research and innovation process. 

As such, two DURAS Documentation Workshops, one for English-speaking and one for French-speaking projects, are being organized by the DURAS Project Office in collaboration with the Centre for Information on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture (ILEIA Group) . The English-language workshop will be held on 16-19 January 2008 in Hanoi (Vietnam) while the French-language workshop scheduled for 11-15 February 2008 in Cotonnou (Benin). DURAS-supported projects in these countries are co-organizing the event. 

The workshops aims to analyze project experience jointly undertaken by both project staff and participants. This process is expected to generate lessons which are to be fed back to improve the project, to strengthen the learning and organizational capacities of the organizations involved as well as to help project participants in designing possible follow-up activities. The project experiences will be documented, presented in the format chosen by the participants and made accessible to a larger public, as well as shared with other groups. 

At the end of the workshop, it is expected that all relevant information related to the project are organized and analyzed, and ready to be written up. Participants would then write it up in their own time, with editorial support through email, so that the cases are ready to be presented at the DURAS Project Closing Workshop in the second quarter of 2008. A special publication will also be prepared and disseminated. It will contain the articles about the lessons learned on each of the projects as well as their research findings. 

Contact:
Oliver OLIVEROS
Coordinator, Project DURAS*
Agropolis International, Avenue Agropolis, F-34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Tél. : +33 (0)4 67 04 37 47; Fax : +33 (0) 4 67 04 75 99
e-mail: oliveros@agropolis.fr
website: www.duras-project.net