November 2025 Update from Vice Provost Obrist

Topics: Academic Advancement and Reporting Due Dates; Mentorship Program 2026 Request for Mentors; Science-to-Practice (S2P) Grant Program; AAC Professional Society Meeting Travel Funds; Some Resources on AI and gen AI

Academic Advancement and Reporting Due Dates. All UC ANR academics must complete Annual Project Board reporting and submit either an Annual Evaluation or a PR dossier (for merit and promotion reviews) by December 8, 2025. Please find respective information on ANR’s Academic Advancement, Annual Evaluation, and Project Board support websites. Thank you for your compliance with these important due dates.

Mentorship Program 2026 Request for Mentors. See attached call for mentors for the 2026 academic and staff mentorship program. If you are interested in serving as a mentor, please complete your mentor application and share your background, experience, and areas of interest through this link. Your service as a mentor—whether for an academic or staff mentee—is greatly appreciated, we can’t do it without your help. As mentors, expectations are: to attend an online Mentor Orientation in January 2026, to meet with an assigned mentee once a month over a 9-month period, and to participate in the in-person Mentor-Mentee orientation event. Sign-up and program information for new mentees will follow soon.

Science-to-Practice (S2P) Grant Program. Please note the new UC ANR call for proposals for the Science-to-Practice (S2P) Grant Program for new projects that integrate research and extension. The S2P program provides funding to support the formation and development of teams proposing to explore innovative methods, structures and projects that foster the translation of research into programs and outputs for dissemination and implementation. Interdisciplinary teams of eligible participants can apply for grants of up to $10,000 for one year, renewable as funding permits for up to three years. Please see further information and details on the recent ANR Update.

Professional Society Meeting Travel Funds. The new call for Professional Society Meeting Travel Funds for January 2026 to March 2026 is open for CE Advisors, CE Specialists, and Academic Coordinators. To apply, complete the Professional Society Meeting Travel Application. Additional information can be found on the Academic Assembly Council website.

Some Resources on AI and genAI. I would like to point out some useful resources for academics to learn about the use of AI and generative AI. Please check out resources provided by UC’s systemwide AI website, including information/webinars on AI Governance and Transparency, AI Tools and Resources, Generative AI and the Art of the Possible; and Safe Handling of UC Data in Generative AI Applications. Relevant information also includes UC AI Primer: Core Concepts and Fundamentals, which provides information on the Ethics of AI, Governance Best Practices, and a Tour of ChatGPT. The Extension Foundation has ongoing training webinars including an upcoming seminar (Leveraging Generative AI for Coaching and Mentoring). As announced in the recent Town Hall meeting, CE advisor Taravati is hosting an upcoming Zoom workshop on Artificial intelligence and data analytics. Please note that this email/information is not an endorsement of any of these resources or content; please familiarize yourself with UC Responsible AI Principles guidance to ensure that implementation and use of AI-enabled tools is consistent with UC oversight, guardrails, and values described therein.

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving holiday and a peaceful and restful time with your friends and family. 

Daniel 

October 2025 Update from Vice Provost Obrist

Topics: Academic Advancement Webinars; Upcoming Deadline to Submit external/internal Evaluator Names for Promotion and Indefinite Status Review Cases; Programmatic and Administrative Orientations; Informatics and GIS Program Workshop Series; UCOP Guidance for DEI-Related Programs and Services; Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Administration Research and Development Budget Priorities; New Supervision Features in Project Board; Communication Advisory Board Service Opportunity. 

Dear colleagues,

I would like to bring your attention to the opportunities and information detailed below.

Academic Advancement Webinars: We still have a few academic advancement training opportunities coming up, including Training for First-time PR Writers (Thursday, October 23, 2025, 9 am-10 am) and Advancement Cycle Q&A Sessions (Thursday, November 6, 2025, 9 am-10 am) AND Tuesday, November 18, 2025 (9 am-10 am). Please find Zoom links and recordings of additional training events on Academic HR’s Merit and Promotion website. 

Upcoming Deadline to Submit external/internal Evaluator Names for Promotion and Indefinite Status Review Cases: For academics reporting to UC ANR, please note the upcoming deadline to provide names for letters of evaluation (internal, external, and clientele) for academics seeking promotions and indefinite status reviews; both supervisors and academics each submit three to five names for evaluators by October 28, 2025. As per eBook, the Associate Vice President and Vice Provost for Academic Personnel shall solicit letters of evaluation from qualified persons and from sources inside and outside the University of California; they will also contact selected evaluators; academics shall not directly contact evaluators.

Programmatic and Administrative Orientations: All new academics are cordially invited to the Fall 2025 UC ANR Programmatic Orientation 2025 on Monday and Tuesday, October 27/28, from 8:30-11:30 AM (virtual event). The goal of the orientation is to provide an overview of UC ANR’s programmatic structure, provide ANR academics with tools to jump-start their programs by focusing on program design, and showcase successful program-building examples from peer academics. This is open to all employees, and recommended to academics and supervisors who have not yet attended the orientation. All new ANR employees hired within the past year are also invited to the upcoming Administrative Orientation on November 4 (all-day, in-person event); information and registration for both events are found here.

Informatics and GIS Program Workshop Series: Please note the ongoing workshop series from the ANR Informatics and GIS program (IGIS) on Zoom, open to all UC employees, students, and ANR affiliates. Upcoming events include Drone Image Processing with Drone2Map (Friday, October 24, 2025); Spatial Data Fundamentals in R (Friday, November 7, 2025); Introduction to ArcGIS Hub (Friday, November 14, 2025); and Quarto Showcase (Thursday, December 11, 2025). Details and registration can be found here. 

UCOP Guidance for DEI-Related Programs and Services: ANR’s Office of Workplace Inclusion and Belonging has adapted UCOP’s guidance for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-related programs for ANR employees (attached PDF document). The content areas described therein include guidance on Volunteer Selection; Diversity Programming; Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Infrastructure & Staffing; Educational Outreach & Academic Preparation Pathways and Pipelines; Recruitment, Hiring, Promotion & Professional Development; Research, Extension & Scholarship; and UC ANR Guidance on “All Employee” Internal Communications. For questions, please reach out directly to Elizabeth Moon (emoon@ucanr.edu). 

Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Administration Research and Development Budget Priorities: Please note the attached Executive Office MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES, highlighting the administration’s Science and Technology priorities and alignment of the Federal Government's role.

New Supervision Features in Project Board: Project Board now has several new features to improve transparency around supervision.

• Academics can see any assigned supervisor names and roles.
• Supervisors can see any assigned direct reports, supervisor roles for each direct report, and any other supervisors assigned to their direct reports.
• Supervisors can download an export of their direct reports’ Project Board data for informational purposes; this is not for public distribution without employee consent.
• Academics can also download a copy of the supervisor export so they can see what supervisors have access to.

Instructions to Access Supervision Features:

1. Log on to https://projectboard.ucanr.edu/
2. Click on Review and Compile in the top menu of Project Board.
3. Use the sub-menu to navigate between the three views: My Direct Reports, My Supervisors, and Submit/Export My Project Board Data (default view).
4. The My Direct Reports view displays any assigned direct reports, your role in supervision, as well as the other supervisors and roles assigned to direct reports. Supervisors may download a supervisor export of each direct report for monitoring and informational purposes. Select a date range or all time (which goes back six years), then click on the export button. Note that separated academics still appear; this will be fixed in the near future.
5. The My Supervisors view displays any assigned supervisors and their role in supervision. Academics may download a copy of what a supervisor would see in the supervisor export, which is available for monitoring and informational purposes. Select a date range or all time (which goes back six years), then click on the export button.
6. Supervisors are asked not to publish or share information from the exports without consent from the employee as the narratives may not be written for public consumption.
7. If you have questions or see any missing information, please contact Academic Human Resources (Anna Lee at anlee@ucanr.edu).

These instructions are also available on this Project Board User Manual. For questions, please contact Kit Alviz (kit.alviz@ucop.edu). 

Communication Advisory Board Service Opportunity: UC ANR’s Communications Advisory Board (CAB) is again accepting applications for new members. CAB meets about four times per year, often via Zoom, to advise on publishing and communications across ANR. Terms are three years. They are especially seeking additional representation from the disciplines of water/irrigation, forestry, community and economic development, and urban agriculture, as well as more members from Southern California. To express interest or ask questions, please contact CAB Chair Dustin Blakey at dwblakey@ucanr.edu. 

Wishing you all a great fall season. 

Daniel

August 2025 Update from Vice Provost Obrist

Topics: New eBook Online; Upcoming 2025/26 Academic Advancement Training; Civil Rights Compliance Update (from Kit Alviz and David White); New UC ANR Academic Resource Webpage; Zoom Training on Ithenticate; Professional Society Meeting Travel Funds Call; WRDC Grant Funding Opportunities

Dear colleagues, 

New eBook Online: The new eBook (guidance for ANR’s Advancement Process) is online now. While we kept changes to a minimum, I would like to point out a few changes to the process: (i) PR dossiers now allow an optional Statement of Special Challenges about potentially adverse impacts as a result of changes in federal funding/support to your programming, please use as needed; (ii) sections on Affirmative Action and contributions to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) were changed to Civil Rights Compliance and fostering UC ANR’s Principles of Community; please review and see below updates for minor changes to annual reporting requirements on Civil Rights compliance; (iii) in an effort to increase transparency, the PRC and reviewers will have access to lists of funded projects from UC ANR’s Grant Tracking System (GTS); a copy thereof will be shared with academics at the end of October for preparation of your dossiers. You may use your supporting project table to comment on additional funded projects and/or discrepancies if projects do not show up on the GTS list. Finally, I would like to thank the AAC-Personnel Committee and Chair Bolda for the collaborative discussions and efforts during the eBook update process.

Upcoming 2025/26 Academic Advancement Training: Please find the dates of the upcoming Academic Advancement training in October and November listed on the 2025/26 Academic Calendar. Reminders with Zoom links will be announced soon. Please also note that this year, an additional training specifically for Academic Coordinators will be provided (date TBD). We encourage supervisors also to attend these training sessions. New example PR dossier will be posted on the Academic Advancement website in the next couple of weeks.

Civil Rights Compliance Update (from Kit Alviz and David White): UC ANR is updating Civil Rights compliance based on findings from our recent USDA NIFA Civil Rights review. These changes are described below and will also be discussed in the upcoming Sept. 4th civil rights training, “Improving All Reasonable Effort and Engagement with New Audiences” (link to register).

• If academics have advisory committees with external partners for their programs, they should include them in Civil Rights reporting. This includes conducting and reporting All Reasonable Effort for balanced committee composition as well as collecting and reporting race, ethnicity, gender, and/or organizational attendance data into Project Board.
• UC ANR will be implementing an expanded definition of All Reasonable Effort (ARE). We will be adding “Organization Collaboration” as a “fifth” ARE method to Project Board in 2026. Likewise, UC ANR will be expanding how the ARE standard can be met: we will begin to allow the “Other” category now to also count toward satisfying the “at least 3” criteria. So, there will be six methods: 1) Mass Media, 2) Flyers/promotional material, 3) Individual letter/emails, 4) face-to-face/phone/personal invitations, 5) Organization collaboration, 6) Other.
• Finally, please review the revised language on Civil Rights compliance reporting (formerly Affirmative Action) in the new eBook.

New UC ANR Academic Resource Webpage: Please find a list of academic resources on the new webpage for the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Personnel and Development. The webpage provides specific resources for Early Career Academics as well as Resources for all UC ANR Academics. Please feel free to provide feedback on ways to improve resource access for academics as we further develop this webpage.

Zoom Training on Ithenticate: Please find a Zoom Recording of our recent UC ANR demo for Ithenticate (a similarity checking and AI-generated content detection platform). Sign-in to the program and for more information via the Ithenticate webpage.

Professional Society Meeting Travel Funds Call: The new call for Academic Assembly Council (AAC) Travel Funds for October to December 2025 closes on August 29, 2025. The program supports travel to meetings with professional societies for select academic titles. To apply, please see the Professional Society Meeting Travel Application. For additional information, visit the Academic Assembly Council website.

WRDC Grant Funding Opportunities: See grant funding information and opportunities from the Western Rural Development Center in the RFPs linked below, which are due mid-September.

Be well, and with best wishes, 

Daniel

July 2025 Update from Vice Provost Obrist

Topics: Confirmation of Academic Advancement Actions; eBook Revisions; UCCE Program Development and Evaluation Capacity Building Trainings 2025; Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) Protocols; Travel Support for CE Specialists and AES Faculty; UC ANR STATA License Renewals; Updating ANR’s Orientation Guide

Dear colleagues, 

Confirmation of Academic Advancement Action: Last week, Academic HR sent out a notification to all supervisors to confirm eligibility for the upcoming UC ANR academic advancement cycle for academics. Your supervisors should have reached out to you, or will in the near future, to confirm and discuss your intended action (e.g., merit, promotion, annual evaluation, 18-month option, normal or accelerated action, etc.). Please communicate your intentions with your supervisor(s). Your supervisors will need to confirm actions for their supervisees by July 29, 2025.

eBook Revisions: We are currently working on eBook revisions for the upcoming academic advancement cycle and are working collaboratively with the Academic Assembly Council Personnel Committee to discuss and implement any forthcoming changes. If you have inputs or suggestions, please contact your AAC-PC committee member or chair (Mark Bolda: mpbolda@ucanr.edu) so your feedback can be considered. We expect an updated eBook version to be available by the middle of August. 

UCCE Program Development and Evaluation Capacity Building Trainings 2025: Please check out the upcoming online interactive trainings from ANR’s Program Planning and Evaluation group to help with planning your programs/projects, engaging California communities, civil rights compliance, and evaluating your programs and assessing their impact. This is an excellent, 15-part series offered a la carte; select whichever interests you or take the complete series!

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) Protocols: Please find attached and below information on the compliance with Public Health Service (PHS) Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals when using live vertebrate animals. It is important for academics to understand that Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols are needed for all animals, not just those in lab settings. This also includes research on livestock, and if anyone happens to be doing research on octopus (according to Niamh Quinn 😊). Some research is exempt, like animal observations, but generally, all studies involving capture, handling, or any procedure that might alter animal behavior require IACUC review. Please contact IACUC at UC Merced if you have any questions. Additional guidance from UCI can be found here. Finally, Niamh Quinn (nmquinn@ucanr.edu) has offered her experience with the process for academics with questions – thanks, Niahm!

Travel support of CE specialists and AES faculty: As recently communicated by AVP Hales, UC ANR will be making additional travel support available for UC Cooperative Extension specialists to collaborate directly with UCCE advisors and Research and Extension Center directors in FY 2025-26. UC ANR will also support travel by AES faculty to meet and work with UC ANR county-based or REC-based academics. Additional support may be available through the campuses; please consult your departments or colleges. UCCE specialists and AES faculty can apply for travel support funding by completing an application through this short survey: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=37624.

UC ANR STATA Users: Every year UC Davis does a group renewal of STATA licenses, and by collectively purchasing STATA, we are able to get substantial savings on STATA license renewal fees.  If you would like to participate, please send David Hatter (djhatter@ucanr.edu) with UC ANR IT an email with information on which version of STATA you are using and with your license number. Renew maintenance on an existing Stata/SE perpetual license is approximately $54.29. Please check out the options here to see the comparison of all the different levels of license.  

Updating ANR’s Orientation Guide. ANR’s Orientation Guide for new Academics is long outdated and is overdue for a revision. I am looking for volunteers who would like to help with re-doing this document this fall. Small stipends will be made available. Please contact me if you are interested in participating in his activity.

With best wishes, 

Daniel 

-- 

Daniel Obrist, PhD 

Vice Provost for Academic Personnel and Development 
University of California Agricultural and Natural Resources 
2801 2nd Street 

Davis, California 95618

Phone: (530) 464-8301

Cell: (530) 574-9369 

Email: dobrist@ucanr.edu

Bio page: https://ucanr.edu/people/daniel-obrist