- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Registration is now open for the 2015 UC ANR Joint Strategic Initiative Conference, which will be held Oct. 5-7 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, 1230 J Street, in Sacramento.
UC Cooperative Extension advisors, UC Cooperative Extension specialists, Agricultural Extension Station faculty, program directors, academic coordinators and programmatic staff are encouraged to attend.
At the conference, you'll have the opportunity to
- Meet Vice President Glenda Humiston at the Monday evening reception.
- Participate in a discussion with UC President Janet Napolitano and Vice President Humiston at Tuesday's luncheon.
- Learn about ANR competitive grant-funded research projects.
- Engage in planning for the Strategic Initiatives.
- Attend program team and workgroup meetings.
- Take advantage of free training sessions.
- Network at the stakeholders' reception on Tuesday evening.
The conference is being coordinated through the five UC ANR Strategic Initiatives:
- Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases
- Healthy Families and Communities
- Sustainable Food Systems
- Sustainable Natural Ecosystems
- Water Quality, Quantity and Security
There's still time to submit a poster abstract for a poster session, the deadline for submit poster abstracts is Sept 9. Posters will be displayed on Monday and Tuesday nights. For details, see http://ucanr.edu/sites/2015jointsiconference/Call_for_Posters.
For the conference rate at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, reserve lodging by Sept. 11 by calling (800) 325-3535 or booking online at https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/ucanr2015. UC ANR will provide travel funding for participants who are affiliated with ANR.
For more information, contact UC ANR Program Support Unit, Sherry Cooper, (530) 750-1256, or Saundra Wais, (530) 750-1260 or anrprogramsupport@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Send comments via e-mail directly to James Bartolome.
A draft of the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems plan, which will guide efforts in this area for the next five years, is available at http://ucanr.org/sites/NRCC_2010/Sustainable_Natural_Ecosystems_Draft_Plan/
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Nearly 80 ANR members gathered in Sacramento on June 28-30 to review and make recommendations for the focus and direction of the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems strategic initiative. At the end of the SNE conference, all of the initiative leaders presented information regarding the status of their initiative plans – Sustainable Natural Ecosystems (SNE), Healthy Family and Communities (HFC), Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) and Endemic and Invasive Plants and Diseases (EIPD).
The areas of inquiry under consideration for the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems initiative are land use, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity, water supply, energy, climate change, and ecosystem services. Based on feedback from the conference, the SNE advisory panel will revise the plan and make it available on the Web from July 25 to Aug. 15 for final review and input. The initial draft plan is posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/NRCC_2010/files/14722.pdf.
The Healthy Families and Communities Strategic Initiative Conference will be held Aug. 24 – 26 at UC Davis. Participants will discuss childhood obesity, youth science literacy, and thriving and contributing youth to identify potential areas of inquiry.
“The primary focus of the conference will be to dialog, discuss, review and further define the priority areas of inquiry identified by the panel for the HFC Strategic Initiative,” said Sharon Junge, HFC initiative leader. “It will also include the beginning development of the strategic plan for accomplishing the work over the next five years.”
Look for more details on the potential areas of inquiry for the HFC Strategic Initiative and the Initiative Conference at http://ucanr.org/sites/PSU.
The Sustainable Food Systems initiative panel is discussing areas of inquiry dealing with water issues including water supply and delivery systems, availability, reliability, price and ways to improve water use efficiency, quality and conservation. Other areas under discussion are food safety from both microbial and chemical contamination, tools to improve the relative competitiveness and productivity of California agriculture today and with projected climate changes, maintaining local and regionally based food systems, and viability of small and mid-sized farming or ranching operations. Similar to the other panels, the SFS panel is developing a draft strategic plan incorporating these areas. The draft will be circulated for review before October.
The Endemic and Invasive Pest and Diseases initiative panel is discussing potential topics including insect vectors and pathogens; surveillance tools and methodology; climate change impact on pests, weeds and the environment; and control and management of aquatic pests. They, too, will have a draft circulated for review before October.
The next steps are for the Strategic Initiative Leaders to present draft plans to Program Council in October for review and comment. These plans will be finalized based upon the comments received. Program Council will evaluate the potential areas of inquiry and make recommendations as to what kind of resources should be allocated over the next five years in ensure that UC ANR work will result in significant and demonstrated policy-relevant impacts.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
A page has been created on the ANR Employee site that links to the strategic initiatives. The link is on the left navigation bar.
Currently only the advisory panels for each initiative are listed, but more information will be added. Contact information is listed for each initiative leader and brief bios identify each panel member.
The strategic initiative page is also at http://ucanr.org/sites/anrstaff/Strategic_Initiatives/.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Dear Colleagues,
Requests for Applications (RFA) for USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) 2010 grant program are scheduled to be released at the end of March. As most of you know, the funding pool is larger, the grants are expected to be larger, and a significant part of the total grant pool will be reserved for integrated research, education, and extension projects. UC ANR wants to aid researchers who propose projects that are relevant to the Division’s Strategic Initiatives.
ANR will support 2010 AFRI grant applications that relate to the ANR initiatives with both monetary (e.g., matching funds) and in-kind (e.g., grant writing) support.
If you are considering an AFRI application, please contact the appropriate initiative leader:
Joe Di Tomaso for Sustainable Food Systems, jmditomaso@ucdavis.edu
Sharon Junge for Healthy Families and Communities, skjunge@ucdavis.edu
James Bartolome for Sustainable Natural Ecosystems, jwbart@berkeley.edu
Ian Gardner for Endemic and Invasive Plants and Diseases, iagardner@ucdavis.edu
You can discuss with them your needs regarding travel or communication aid to pull research teams together; assistance for grant development, extension and outreach components of grants, and matching funds. While no formal process has yet been developed, ANR is committed to helping researchers successfully compete for funds to support projects that align well with ANR’s priorities. You are encouraged to discuss your research projects and needs with the initiative leaders.
The other members of ANR’s Program Council are also committed to facilitating the development of applications for AFRI funding. Feel free to contact Program Council members for assistance or guidance: http://ucanr.org/pcmembership.
Sincerely,
Barbara Allen-Diaz, AVP – Academic Programs & Strategic Initiatives