This information has been placed on the Internet to assist Staff in Member Institutes: the IRRDB is not able to finance training activity by others.

The agreed priority areas are:

• To extend Hevea cultivation into marginal areas (including agro-forestry and rubberwood production)
• To enhance smallholder income and quality of life; to include studies on the social status of tappers
• To increase productivity
• To evaluate competitive land use
• To apply techniques from molecular biology to breeding
• Latex protein allergy
• Environmental protection, such as effluent treatment (see below).

Some of these priority areas are socio-economic in character rather than scientific: greater emphasis needs to be placed upon such activity.

Directors of Member Institutes should ensure that where training is to be performed within another Member Institute that the Director of that Institute is willing and able to perform the training before an application is submitted to the Secretariat. Similarly, where external training is envisaged, that the institution specified would in principle be willing to accept the candidate.

With the exception of Effluent Treatment Fellows (see REF.1996/69) all applications for IRRDB Training Fellowships must be received by the Secretariat on, or before, 15 March 1999. This is to enable the Secretariat to circulate the applications to the Training Committee for consideration. Due to the general shortage of funds applicants should appreciate that costs must be minimized (air travel can be very cheap and subsistence costs may also be low). On the other hand, preference will be given to proposals which are of realistic length (two to three months is the normal length of study anticipated). Consideration can be given to applications which are beyond the normal limits set by the IRRDB £3,000 for internal and £5,000 for external training) provided that the Member Institute making the application is able to provide the remaining funding.

All successful applicants will be expected to provide a full Report which will be circulated to all Member Institutes through the IRRDB Information Quarterly. Failure to provide such reportage may lead to the Member Institute making the application being penalized when submitting further applications. In appropriate cases the successful candidates may also be elligible for an IRRDB Travel Fellowship to inform members at a Workshop or Seminar held during an IRRDB Annual Meeting.

Application Forms are available from Directors of Member Institutes