It is budget season across UC. I'm not sure if it works the same way across UC as it does in UC ANR but it is shaping up to be an interesting process and one that is very different from what I have experienced before. In particular, the differences are 1) solicitation of budget requests from statewide programs, the RECs, support units and administrative units, 2) the review of budget requests by Program Council and Administrative Review Committee, and 3) the organization of the entire process. Tu, Jennifer Bungee, Yuhang Shi and the rest of the team have worked hard to provide a process that is both efficient and user-friendly. I'm in awe of how they manage to keep everything straight and so thoroughly understand what is embedded in each number they see. Program Council has completed its review of the requests and I believe the Administrative Review Committee is near completion if not done. Now if we could only get a federal budget approved. I can't help but wonder if the federal government wouldn't be a bit further along if Jennifer was shepherding their process as well.

The numbers are in for the UC Contracts and Grants report. UC ANR numbers show an increase of 11.1% in awarded projects for the first two quarters of 16-17 as compared to the prior year. Congratulations to all of the awardees! Personally, I have always considered grant writing a bit of a game (the granting game) and it is always nice to win one. Hopefully funding opportunities will remain strong and the ‘skinny budget' represents a starting point for negotiations that ultimately acknowledge the need and value in research so that UC's numbers continue to increase.

If you haven't heard and/or don't already have the dates on your calendar, the 2018 UC ANR Statewide Meeting will be held the week of April 8, 2018 in Ontario, CA. The Strategic Initiative Leaders, Sherry Cooper and a planning committee are working on an agenda that leaves time for program teams to meet in conjunction with the event. This will be the time for program teams to meet during fiscal year 2018 (FY18); no additional funding will be provided to hold program team meetings between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018 (FY18) other than during the statewide meeting the week of April 8-13, 2018. In the coming months Sherry will solicit requests for meeting rooms so no need to try to book one quite yet but do keep this in mind. I'm looking forward to a productive meeting. If you have ideas for the planning team be sure to share them with any of the Strategic Initiative Leaders.

Tomorrow I have an early morning and I hear that I am starting it off by ‘looking at heifers'. This won't be the first time I have done that, though, admittedly, it has been a while. But given that I used to start my day by checking in on springing heifers at 3 AM and tomorrow doesn't start until 6:30 AM, I remain optimistic that I won't need to turn any calves.