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NEW COLLABORATIVE FORMS OF DOING RESEARCH 97

a process for building bridges between knowledge by inter- and trans-disciplinary
research, knowledge, and technology, on the networks of institutions and individuals,
one hand, with the needs and opportunities of beginning with the confluence of resources
society, on the other, in an effort by officials and capacities from inter-institutional
from non-scientific spheres, to find ways for sources, and incorporating considerations of
scientists to return part of the investment the context for applications of the findings by
made in them by the Venezuelan society at the final users/beneficiaries/clients.
large. It is an interactive public policy based Therefore the values that go hand in hand
on the coordination of diverse social agents with the process are cooperation, commitment
around common problems, supported by the to multiple legitimate interests, and links to
legitimacy and autonomy of several partici- national objectives of modernization, equity,
pating interests, and oriented toward the productivity, democratization, and environ-
happy culmination of diverse negotiations. mental sustainability, among others. The orga-
As expected, participation plays a very nizational climate associated with the process
important role in the process, and replaces is of learning and creative problem-solving,
bureaucratic or technocratic decision-making easing the complex process of negotiations
concerning the orientation of research and that the creation of an agenda necessarily
the use of its results. Decisions cannot be implies (Ávalos and Rengifo, 2003: 189).
imposed as pre-established and final, rather, Some agendas have had an impact in terms
they are the result of interaction by partici- of ‘tangible’ results. For example the Cocoa
pating institutions, and it is possible to Agenda, financed by the State and private
submit them to revision at any stage of the producers, achieved an increase in the aver-
process (Ávalos and Rengifo, 2003: 188). age cocoa production per hectare from 200 to
Agendas are stipulated in a process where 650 kilograms in some areas of the country,
interactive actor networks define problem trained over 5,000 farmers, created a germo-
networks that should be assumed by knowl- plasm bank with the best plague resistant,
edge networks, not exclusively of scientific quality seeds, and mapped potentially
research. A dynamic of interaction is gener- productive areas. The Rice Agenda, funded
ated, defined by the nature of the problem by Fundarroa, an important production asso-
networks: the social origin of the problem ciation, and public resources, produced four
situation, the projects negotiated by coopera- improved varieties of rice, increased produc-
tion, the means of evaluation – which go tivity by 70% in some areas of the country,
beyond considerations of purely scientific or and improved yield from 3.2 to 7 tons
technological merit – for the selection of proj- per hectare. Other agendas of a different
ects. This negotiation is based on trust, cooper- nature, such as the Oil Agenda, produced
ation, and co-financing, on transparent rules very important knowledge in the field of
with shared benefits and risks, on the decentral- mathematical modeling for the oil industry
ization of decision-making and participation, (Genatios and La Fuente, 2004).
and on the social orientation and evaluation of The Research Agendas program has con-
results (Ávalos and Rengifo, 2003: 188). tributed significantly to experimenting with
According to this orientation, scientific new approaches and practices in the field of
research should be financed not as a response public policy on research and development in
to a proposal for sponsorship from some Venezuela. This experiment has facilitated
specialized scientific group, but as a response the emergence of similar initiatives that have
2
to a larger agenda of interests, that includes been welcomed more favorably. The major
social concerns. The process implies the contributions of the Agendas are:
delimitation of a social space in which differ-
ent actors identify and demand responses/ ● the adoption, in a limited way, of a knowledge pro-
solutions/support of socially produced duction model (different from the conventional one)