- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
“If UC ANR isn't an incubator, I don't know what is. Furthermore, I would argue that the partnership of our land-grant university system with Cooperative Extension is the original and most productive incubator that the world has ever seen,” VP Glenda Humiston wrote in the October-December 2015 issue of California Agriculture.
Since joining ANR, Humiston has been working to expand UC ANR's incubation activities by joining with diverse partners to develop a much broader innovation infrastructure specifically designed to support intellectual property, innovation, entrepreneurship, tech transfer, startups and commercialization aimed at agriculture, natural resources and rural communities.
“A lot of people have ideas, but they don't know how to be business leaders. An incubator connects them with the things they need to be successful as new entrepreneurs,” said Gabe Youtsey, chief information officer.
To kick off development of such a system, Humiston brought together 40 people on Aug. 30 with a wide range of expertise and representing a variety of sectors: agriculture, banking, business, government, technology and higher education – including leaders of several successful incubators. The purpose of the meeting, held at the ANR building in Davis, was to engage the group in developing a comprehensive strategy to nurture new technologies and innovative businesses for agriculture and natural resources.
“We're not looking to reinvent the wheel or duplicate existing efforts,” Humiston said, explaining that she hopes to support and leverage the strengths and efforts of partners.
Christine Gulbranson, UC senior vice president of research innovation and entrepreneurship, and Reg Kelly of UC San Francisco, who created QB3, – one of UC's best performing incubators – participated in the session. The quantitative biologists at UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz who comprise QB3 take on challenges in biology using physics, chemistry, and computer science. QB3's Startup in a Box provides legal and grant-writing help for biotech startups.
“We want to take the QB3 model and modify it for ANR,” Humiston said. “But we don't have the resources to build a statewide system by ourselves so we're catalyzing like-minded partners to jointly develop the needed statewide innovation infrastructure.”
Such an innovation system could benefit a wide array of entrepreneurs in rural areas and help to commercialize ideas generated by UC Cooperative Extension specialists and advisors.
“Over the past eight years, ANR researchers have filed 148 patents,” Humiston said. “However, it is unclear if many of those had the support they needed to go the next step.”
At the meeting, the group divided into five tables of eight people. Each table had representatives of UC ANR, various UC campuses, state and federal government, funding institutions, incubators, and different industries. They discussed issues around innovation, place, talent, stewardship and engagement, answering the following questions:
- What exists now?
- Where are the gaps that need to be filled?
- Which of these gaps could UC ANR help catalyze and fill, either with partners or on its own?
- How could this work to fill the gaps be funded?
- How do we measure success?
Conversations were lively and many ideas were brought forth for specific projects and other implementation. “It's really exciting,” said Humiston. “People were jazzed. Virtually all of the participants said they want to work with us on next steps.”
In addition to Humiston and Youtsey, AVP Wendy Powers and UCCE advisors David Doll and Andre Biscaro participated for ANR. Consultant Meg Arnold is writing up a report, which is expected to be released in early October.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
CUCSA delegates – who represent all the UC campuses, UCOP and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – meet quarterly to work on special projects of interest and importance to UC staff across California, share local staff assembly best practices, and learn about advances being made by UC academics and high-level UC leadership.
UC ANR vice president Glenda Humiston was a guest at the September CUCSA meeting. She outlined the origins of the division, the activities of UC ANR specialists and advisors, and introduced future plans.
Humiston noted a difference between UC ANR's network of nine research and extension centers and the UC Natural Reserve System.
“In the Natural Reserve, scientists look, but don't touch,” Humiston said. “In UC ANR, we plow, we burn, and we plant on our research and extension centers.”
Humiston has a long-time commitment to the value of working landscapes in California. She chartered an action team on working landscapes for the California State Economic Summit.
“Working landscapes are responsible for 1.2 million jobs and $318 billion in direct sales and exports,” Humiston said. “We're a key part of California's economy.”
Under her leadership, ANR has become a part of the University Economic Development Association, which advances knowledge and practice in economic engagement by institutions of higher education.
“I believe it's all about partnerships and collaboration – synergy,” Humiston said.
The CUCSA representatives for UC ANR are senior delegate Lori Renstrom, office manager for UC Cooperative Extension in San Diego County, who will serve until June 2017; and junior delegate Jeannette Warnert, public information representative for UC ANR Strategic Communications, who will serve until June 2018. A new “junior delegate” will be elected by the UC ANR Staff Assembly in spring 2017.
Renstrom is part of the CUCSA workgroup “Mental Health, Stress and Work-Life Balance,” which will review the impacts of increasing student enrollment and ongoing change initiatives as well as the challenges caused by the economy, family demands and other personal factors on staff's mental well being, identify available resources and make recommendations to address staff needs. Warnert is part of the “UC Community Workgroup,” which will review staff diversity statistics across the UC system and obtain staff input about the diversity efforts at their locations. This information will help the workgroup identify best practices, challenges and recommendations for improvements.
All CUCSA workgroups complete a white paper which is presented to the UC Board of Regents at the end of the term.
If you're interested in learning more about ANR Staff Assembly, go to http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu/
Recently I had the opportunity to meet with President Napolitano to review accomplishments and goals for ANR. Following a very upbeat and encouraging conversation, the president requested that ANR's leadership complete a more detailed five-year strategic plan. The draft is due at the end of October, with the final document due in December.
While this is a timely and useful exercise for the division, it comes with a very challenging timeline. The 2025 Strategic Vision will guide our work, and where strategic plans already exist within the statewide programs, strategic initiatives, Research and Extension Centers, budget plans, etc., we will draw from these plans.
Because of the timeline, it is not possible to conduct the extensive input and feedback processes that were used in creating the 2025 Strategic Vision. However, strategic plans, by nature, are dynamic documents. The intent is to position ANR to achieve the goals laid out in the 2025 Strategic Vision and address strengths, weaknesses and gaps in attaining those goals. The draft that is shared with the president will undergo a vetting process with ANR advisory groups and committees.
The primary planning group will be the Senior Leadership Team. However, other individuals have been invited to participate so that both programs and administrative units are well-represented.
We'll share the final document with you when we've delivered it to the president's office. If you have comments or suggestions for this process, please submit them to me using this link http://ucanr.edu/5yearplancomments.
Best regards,
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
The Apps for Ag hackathon, which was spearheaded by Gabe Youtsey, chief information officer, brought software developers, designers, entrepreneurs, farmers and others who work in agriculture to the ANR building for a weekend to create apps to address agricultural issues.
The first place team, GivingGarden, took home $7,500 in prize money, custom rodeo belt buckles and a six-month, top-tier membership to the AgStart Incubator in Woodland.
The hyper-local, produce-sharing app provides gardening advice from the UC Master Gardener Program and enables backyard gardeners to connect with others who want to share their produce. The GivingGarden team members are Scott Kirkland, Josh Livni, Deema Tamimi and John Knoll.
UC IPM's Mark Takata and Chinh Lam split $2,500 for third place for their ACP STAR System, a geo and temporal database and platform for tracking Asian citrus psyllid and other invasive pests.
The top three teams will also receive complimentary startup incorporation services valued at $2,200 from Royse Law.
All of the participating teams had about 48 hours to develop their apps. Teams that were interested were offered $500 in “cloud credits” to build their solutions and host them on Amazon Web Services' platform. Teams also had access to an IoT kit to incorporate connected devices into their solution.
The top four teams pitched their apps to judges in front of a live audience at the California State Fair.
The event was sponsored by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the California State Fair and the City of Sacramento.
“It's really important for UC ANR to be involved in app development because as farmers and natural resource managers face ever-increasing challenges – climate change, invasive pests, the need to conserve water – technology is one of the ways to find solutions,” said VP Glenda Humiston.
“Using technology we can find better ways to reduce pesticide use, increase irrigation efficiency, reduce travel into the fields, manage people better, and deal with the fact that we have a huge labor shortage in this state,” said Humiston, who served as one of the Apps for Ag judges.
The other judges included University of California Chief Information Officer Tom Andriola, USDA Chief Data Officer Bobby Jones, and Better Food Ventures and Mixing Bowl Hub founder Rob Trice.
Some of you may recall the discussions that have taken place over the past year with ANR's leadership, the AES campuses, and UC's Office of the President involving revenue flow, the administration and allocation of ANR funds and resources, and the overall funding model for our division.
Following a lengthy and detailed review and analysis by an independent resource, as well as analysis by a committee appointed by President Napolitano, a decision has now been made by the President's office on how we're to move forward.
The bottom line, I believe, is that we now have a budget model that reduces uncertainty and allows us to more effectively plan and forecast into the future. I anticipate more clarity with each budget cycle, and (with the MOUs we're currently developing) less need for new rounds of negotiation every year with our AES campus partners.
Below, please see an email from the President's chief of staff regarding the new budget model.
Thank you,
Glenda
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
From: Jenne Vargas-Maes On Behalf Of Seth Grossman
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2016 3:39 PM
Subject: Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) - Financial and Business Operations Update
Dear Colleagues,
The purpose of this email is to share with you President Napolitano's decisions regarding financial and business operations issues raised last year by the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) and the campus locations. These decisions were made with the input of the task force convened by the President and led by CFO Nathan Brostrom, and are summarized as follows:
1. Starting in FY17-18, the UCOP portion of the ANR budget will be calculated using the “UCSF Corridor” model, and the source of funds will continue to be the campus assessment. This model assumes that in years where the University receives increased funding from the State, ANR would receive its “normal share” of the first 2% increase and then one-half of its normal share above 2%. In years in which the University receives budget reductions from the State, ANR would receive a reduction equivalent to its normal share of the first 1% and then 25% of its normal share above 1%. “Normal share” is based on the percentage increase being allocated to the campuses for their base budget adjustment.
2. UC ANR will develop a comprehensive MOU with each of the three AES campuses (Berkeley, Davis and Riverside). An MOU is already in place between ANR and UC Merced.
3. Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR) will remain with the location where the Specialist resides and the support activities take place. In many cases this will be at the campus, although there are situations where the Specialist resides at an ANR facility.
4. The distribution of patent revenues, net of costs, will be negotiated by ANR and each of the campuses as part of the MOU. Negotiations should clarify administrative costs of the patent, and the allocation of patent revenue (net of cost) between the campus and ANR with the expectation that net revenues will be shared equitably.
Over the next few months, VP Humiston will lead the effort of creating the MOUs with the expectation that they will be reviewed every three years. The President and CFO Brostrom will review the negotiated MOUs prior to signing.
All the best,
Seth
