To address these budgetary issues, cost increases must be offset by increasing the proportion of research costs covered by research projects. We project that approximately 25 percent of today's central funding will need to be redirected to cover increases in personnel salaries and benefits, deferred maintenance, strategic investments to ensure long-term operation of the REC system for generations to come, and increases in operating expenditures that are not included in research expenses. Increased expenses will be covered over time through a combination of fund development, increased revenue generated through increased programming and services, increased efficiency of business operations, and a reduction in the current level of research funding by UC ANR which, at present, averages approximately 80 percent across all REC supported projects.
For over a year now, we have been working to secure a bright future for the REC system by looking at the research that is conducted at each REC and considering how we do business now and in the future. In addition to the current work and programming that occurs at each REC every day, there is incredible untapped potential for new research and programs. Improved understanding of the cost to conduct research has been a key part of the review process undertaken at each of the centers over the past year. A deep dive into the accounting and cost structure has occurred at each facility; identifying the lines of service at the facility and the costs to provide those services. The FY 2018-19 cost structures for each center have been submitted to the UC ANR Rate and Recharge Committee for review this past week. Following review, the REC system will receive feedback and recommendations for changes to be made prior to rate approval.
We aim to have the full cost structures approved by late April 2018. Concurrent with the effort to identify costs for each line of service is work by each REC director to identify the level of funding that will be available in their individual budgets to reduce those costs to support research projects at each facility. We anticipate these rates will be available in late April for projects conducted in FY 2018-19 and with estimates for FY 2019-20 available at the same time.
Continuing a long tradition of supporting impactful research at each REC to solve agricultural and natural resource issues remains our highest priority. Ramp up of fund development efforts and identification of new or additional income opportunities at each REC will take time as will the ability for these strategies to offset research costs. In the meantime, the REC directors have identified that providing extra financial support to UC academics who have been in their jobs six years or less is critical to the success of new and early-career UC academics. To the extent that UC ANR funding permits, extra financial support may also be provided to support exploratory or high risk/high reward projects, projects that extend critical, under-funded, long-term research, and projects conducted by PIs who are first time users of the REC.
While the current budgeting efforts come with uncertainty and discomfort in the short-term, change is needed to secure long-term success. The leaders of each REC and UC ANR senior leaders are committed to transparency of research costs, exemplary customer service and investment into facilities and infrastructure that further our ability for sustained growth of the REC System.
Sincerely,
Glenda Humiston, vice president
Wendy Powers, associate vice president
Tu Tran, associate vice president, Business Operations
Jeff Dahlberg, director, Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Jairo Diaz, director, Desert Research and Extension Center
Jose Fernandez De Soto, director, Hansen Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Beth Grafton-Cardwell, director, Lindcove Research and Extension Center
Darren Haver, director, South Coast Research and Extension Center
Bob Hutmacher, director, West Side Research and Extension Center
Jeremy James, director, Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center
Kim Rodrigues, director, Hopland Research and Extension Center
Rob Wilson, director, Intermountain Research and Extension Center
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
- Author: Rose Hayden-Smith
After a nearly 30-year career that took her from the U.S. Forest Service to director of UC ANR's Research and Extension Center system, Lisa Fischer is retiring. Her last day is Sept. 30. Darren Haver will serve as interim associate director through the end of the fiscal year.
Fischer joined ANR five years ago as the associate director of the Research and Extension Center system, after more than two decades with the U.S. Forest Service. She was later promoted to director of the RECs.
UC's ANR's nine Research and Extension Centers (RECs) connect UC research and education activities to regional challenges and issues. The nine centers extend from the Oregon border south to Imperial County. Each center has a unique focus. They provide land, labor, facilities and equipment that serve as an outdoor laboratory for researchers focusing on agriculture and natural resources. The RECs also serve as focal points for community participation and education, serving as hubs for UC ANR programs such as Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservers and 4-H. UC ANR RECs also partner with non-UC researchers, including scientists from U.S. Department of Agriculture and California State University. This is publicly funded research at its best.
We recently sat down to talk about her career.
What did you do prior to joining UC ANR? How did that work equip you for your career here?
Prior to joining ANR, I spent 21 years with the U.S. Forest Service. I managed and oversaw statewide and regional programs focusing primarily on forest health for California, Hawai'i and the Pacific Islands. Other statewide programs I was responsible for included conservation, education and forest stewardship. In many ways, the work was similar to the kind of work we do at ANR: working with state and private interests and other cooperators to deliver a full suite of programs to clientele.
I had a very long relationship with UCCE before joining the organization. My relationship with ANR dates back to the mid-1990s, when I was involved in a collaborative project with the Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program.
You received your degrees in Geography from UC Santa Barbara. How has that discipline helped you in your ANR career?
For the first nine months, I was simply taking in a great deal of information. The time observing the RECs and speaking with a wide range of people (both within and outside of ANR) enabled me to identify some areas that we really wanted to try expand upon.
A key goal coming in was to increase the visibility of the REC system…to create more of a REC brand. There was another piece to that, which was considering how we might begin to engage in different activities, and considering what that would require.
The process of getting out and exploring possibilities with the REC directors was immensely fun, engaging and productive. We visited campus departments and spoke with graduate students, including those enrolled in geography, ecology and plant sciences.
UC ANR has done a wonderful job of providing hands-on experiences for K-12 and for UC and CSU students. It was also important for me to provide experiences for community college students. One of things I did early on with Bill Frost's blessing was to create an intern program. Initially, we were looking at how students might help us help to gain visibility, but we realized that these experiences might lead to future employment opportunities for these young people. So, I wove that into the pattern I saw.
I have always tried to be creative and consider how we can grow our REC system both internally as well as externally.
The RECs are being used in some new and exciting ways. Could you elaborate on that?
I'm very passionate about the Extension part of our work. Internally, I began having conversations in hallways about bringing groups together that could actually be present at the RECs. A central question was “How can we use these inter-connected physical places and locations across the state to benefit and host the full suite of ANR programs?”
One of the first centers to do this was South Coast REC in Irvine, where Director Darren Haver brought Cooperative Extension county programs and REC programs under one umbrella. Slowly, we also did that this at Hansen Agricultural Research and Extension ECenter (HAREC) in Ventura County. And for the first time ever, every acre at HAREC is being used for research and educational activities. More academics are engaging with RECs. We've improved.
Another creative and interesting opportunity has arisen from taking amazing research and programmatic work, and packaging it and delivering it in various ways to different audiences, from K-12 to the general public to international groups. Having RECs focusing on outreach, integrating programs and bringing different ideas for new outreach efforts has been very successful on a number of fronts. For example, Project Learning Tree uses RECs as places to convene different clientele and stakeholders. They conduct not only forestry-related teacher training, but also training to equip those educating others about natural resources, agriculture, wastewater and more.
We've really expanded the community educator capacity in the REC system. A model for the great potential of this work has been the Farm Smart program at Desert REC (DREC) in Imperial County. Farm Smart provides an on-site educational program serving grades K-12 and winter visitors (“snowbirds”). To date, it's served over 120,000 people. It's a very successful outreach and extension program that integrates a REC-based program with a county-based program. We've used Farm Smart as a model to launch other programs and educator positions across the system, including Sustainable You, a youth-development program that's involved 4-H, Master Gardener volunteers, the California Naturalist Program, Project Learning Tree and other county-based community educators. Sustainable You – a program developed by Utah State University – has launched at several RECs.
Which accomplishments are you most proud of?
I think that the strategic planning effort we undertook was absolutely amazing. When I came to ANR five years ago, one of the tasks given to me was to lead the creation of fully stakeholder-driven strategic plans. The process we developed to create these plans was amazing. Each of the nine centers convened committees consisting of stakeholders, specialists and advisors within thematic areas that were unique and critical to each REC.
It was a creative and open process that allowed for a continual flow of information from many and diverse parties.
It has been inspiring to develop and look out at a long-term plan (each plan projects out 20 years). What will the center look like? What will the work look like? What will the research facilities look like? How will we get there? The unique part of these plans is that they key in on a broad, strategic lens that reflects public values, such as enhanced science literacy. Goals are considered through these lenses, which has resulted in very strategic and creative action plans. These plans include anticipated outcomes and expected deliverables, but provide flexibility to adapt as the need arises. These are living plans that REC directors and their successors can reference, utilize, refine and use to guide annual work.
The strategic planning process also broadened our thinking and created an entire new set of questions about who we might work with at each REC, and the diversity of research efforts that might be undertaken in the future. Could we work with engineers? Artists? Writers? How do we expand partnerships in ways that not only help us maintain fiscal health and stability, but in ways which will enhance the diversity of research and education activities? Because of the sprawling nature of the REC system and the physical space that divides us, we've even discussed distance learning.
After five years, what's your takeaway about the REC system you've managed?
My perspective on the REC system is that it represents a simply amazing breadth of ecosystems and much of the amazing geographic and physical diversity that characterizes California. It's a unique place-based system that incorporates research, education, outreach and extension.
I feel as if I've just touched on the surface of what's possible here.
What would you want to tell advisors and others beginning their career with UC ANR?
Until I got involved in this position, I had no true understanding of how extraordinarily valuable a resource the RECs are for researchers and California taxpayers. These diverse physical locations exist as creative spaces for research and programmatic development and delivery. Opportunities abound. The potential is unlimited.
I'd also tell people to keep their eyes open and to consider the other kinds of research and programmatic opportunities that might arise. Step outside of the box a bit. It's essential to keep the research and extension mission in focus. But knowing that is our focus, it's important to note that research is very expansive: there are social, physical, biological, chemical, mechanical, and cultural aspects of critical issues that can be explored. Research can be conducted in any number of disciplines at the RECs. So, continue to seek out those different opportunities…that will assure that ANR remains in the forefront of creative research and Extension work.
I feel very strongly about that.
UC ANR leadership is proud of its outstanding network of nine Research and Extension Centers across the state. Including academic salaries and temporary funding, UC ANR invests close to $14 million annually in the REC system. We are committed to continuing to make an investment of this magnitude, recognizing the importance of each individual REC, and the REC system to our research and extension missions.
A freeze on state operations and maintenance funding since 2006, and a virtual absence of deferred maintenance funds, necessitates a close look at how the annual investment is used so as to position the RECs for a long, successful future. UC ANR leadership is taking the long view to its programmatic collaboration and growth. As a result, we are developing a strategy for cost recovery to continue to operate and improve the facilities so that we can better serve researchers and their research and extension activities – well into the next decade, not just the next three to five years.
Key attributes of the strategy include:
- Improved clarity of how full-cost research rates are calculated and how researcher costs are derived, based on a researcher's specific and agreed upon needs for labor and facilities
- Establishment of rates four to six months in advance of the effective date for the rate (i.e. rates published in January for projects beginning in July, or some variation thereof) in recognition of the need to project costs in advance of research start date
- Development of a cost structure that reflects different project needs and differences in costs required to support the needs
- Ability to confirm researcher costs for specific, itemized research needs over a multi-year timeframe at time of proposal submission to a funding agency
A move to this new way of calculating research rates will take some time to establish across all nine RECs. Our goal is to have this rolled out between January and March 2018 and to go into effect for any projects (new, renewed or expanded usage) beginning July 1, 2018. This is an ambitious goal given the review and approval process in place that ensures fairness of proposed methodology and charges. However, we are committed to making this a high priority in order to improve the research experience.
To assess feasibility of the approach, the Desert REC will move to a new model in the very near term and serve as a pilot study for the July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018 timeframe. The new model includes different rates for different services (land, water, pesticides, labor, etc.). The new model applies at Desert REC for both new and continuing projects and provides the opportunity to identify any issues early on and make the necessary adjustments. The remaining RECs will develop research rates for REC services over the next few months and the new model will be refined and adapted in 2018-2019 for the remaining eight RECs.
For 2017-2018, researchers continuing projects at all RECs, except Desert REC and West Side REC, should plan on an additional 10 percent to their 2016-2017 research rate to cover increases in salaries and benefit rates and reflect a reduced subsidy by center funds applied to the full cost rate. New and renewed projects will be billed at a researcher rate of $27.46 per hour. A new project is one that has not been submitted to, and approved by, the REC previously. This higher rate reflects the need to reduce the subsidy applied to the full cost rate.
Researchers at West Side REC will be billed at a rate 10 percent above the 2016-2017 West Side REC research rate for all projects.
Developing a new strategy for setting research rates based on different rates for different services will take time, thus the decision to move forward as outlined above. The pilot assessment at Desert REC will illustrate the impacts of a new strategy on both researchers and business operations and help identify best practices to support the transition to a new strategy. We are committed to maintaining a system of RECs that are positioned to address present and emerging research needs for the long term and meet the planning needs of researchers.
Research and Extension Center |
New projects and projects renewed at the end of the 3-year cycle |
Continuing projects (2nd and 3rd year) |
Desert REC |
Charges based on services utilized (acreage, water, labor etc.) |
|
West Side |
2016-17 rate + 10% |
2016-17 rate + 10% |
Hansen, Hopland, Intermountain, Kearney, Lindcove, Sierra Foothill, South Coast |
$27.46 |
2016-17 rate + 10% |
Wendy Powers
Associate Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources
On April 10, VP Glenda Humiston released the following statement to the UC ANR community.
Dear Colleagues,
As we move forward with the implementation of our new Strategic Plan, I want to take this opportunity to share some exciting plans for recapitalizing and modernizing our research infrastructure and facilities. This investment is a key strategy within our larger efforts to “rebuild the UCCE footprint” and increase the number of academics throughout the system.
The Strategic Plan proposes a total investment of more than $40 million for UC ANR research facilities, with well over half of that designated for the Research and Extension Center System (RECs). This historic investment will be funded by a combination of debt issuance, judicious deployment of reserves, revisiting recharge rates (cost recovery) and a robust capital campaign. The good news is, in the current financial market, interest rates are still relatively affordable, making it a very good time to borrow money and expedite construction.
The RECs are a unique and critical part of the research capacity of UC ANR, as well as a vital resource for California's agricultural sector. Unfortunately, they have not been adequately supported for a number of years, resulting in 21st century research being conducted in facilities that are 50 to 60 years old. We must look to the future and invest in these facilities now to serve the researchers and scholars that bring their projects to the RECs – both current and future. Going forward, we must also ensure financial stability and plan for ongoing upgrades to keep our facilities up-to-date and in demand.
UC ANR central funds currently cover expenses at the RECs ranging from 70% to 90% of all costs; the RECs, in turn, use those funds to support, on average, over 80% of the costs to conduct research. This significant support has been given to all researchers, regardless of need or priority, and doesn't allow ANR the flexibility to target our research support dollars where they are most needed. Furthermore, much of the work conducted at the RECs for projects awarded to UC campuses provide no Indirect Cost (IDC) to the RECs to cover utilities, infrastructure and other support costs generally covered by IDC.
Lisa Fischer has been working with the REC directors to develop a vision for the RECs, including prioritizing the improvements to be funded and identifying options to enhance administrative and financial management. Several options are currently under discussion, including liquidating assets and/or pursuing land lease options, increasing crop income, seeking endowment opportunities and resetting recharge rates either as a system or by individual RECs.
As part of these options, we need to develop recharge rates that more accurately reflect true costs and assist with recovery of the division's outlays. This move will enable those funds to be available to help improve operations and maintenance as well as augment three research funds that we are developing: one to provide extra support for early-career ANR academics, another to be available for emergency needs such as Asian citrus psyllid, and the third to provide matching funds when required for certain grants.
I know you share my enthusiasm about the potential of our REC System to become the elite and productive research infrastructure that California is depending on to provide solutions to the many issues facing the state. We are discussing and evaluating all available options to reduce the RECs' dependence on central funds and develop strategies to improve their administrative and financial management. I anticipate receiving a proposal from REC leadership in late April.
Rising costs, coupled with budget forecasts from our traditional state and federal sources that appear flat for the foreseeable future, mean that all of UC ANR, not just the RECs, must look for ways to manage ongoing programs with less reliance on central funding. Concurrently, we are also greatly enhancing our funds development capacity to assist with program needs and expanding our academic footprint. I will be providing more updates on that, as well as other aspects of the Strategic Plan implementation effort, as plans are finalized and milestones are met.
Sincerely,
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The following policies regarding research and extension center use and research advisory committee meetings are available for employee comment:
580 - USE OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND EXTENSION CENTERS
580 Appendix A, Procedural Requirements for Employee Organization Access to the Research and Extension Centers
580 Appendix B, ANR Research and Extension Center (REC) Access Violation Report
581 - RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEES (RACs) at the RESEARCH AND EXTENSION CENTERS (RECs)
Links to all of these policies are located at http://ucanr.edu/p/48355.
Please send comments and suggestions to Robin Sanchez at rgsanchez@ucanr.edu by Friday, Aug. 29, 2014.