ANR continues to focus on five strategic initiatives

VP Humiston has announced that ANR will continue to focus on the current strategic initiatives. Sustainable Natural Ecosystems (SNE), Healthy Families and Communities (HFC), Sustainable Food Systems (SFS), Endemic and Invasive Plants and Diseases (EIPD) and Water Quality, Quantity and Security (Water) will remain priorities for the next five years.

Through the development and implementation of ANR's Strategic Vision 2025, the division has identified these five initiatives as the best opportunities for ANR's considerable infrastructure and talent to seek new resources and new ways of partnering within and outside UC to find solutions for California.

 In 2014, ANR conducted an assessment of the Competitive Grants Program to evaluate whether it was effectively addressing priority issues within the initiatives outlined in their respective plans.  The report concluded that the grants program is reaching the goals of supporting short-term, high-impact projects and contributing policy-relevant outcomes that address significant agricultural, economic, and environmental and social issues in California. The strategic initiatives are also fostering collaboration and leveraging resources through the grants program and other activities. To read the summary of the Competitive Grants Program report, visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/files/204951.pdf.

A recent study of policy impacts of the ANR Competitive Grants program by UC Cooperative Extension specialists Clare Gupta and David Campbell found that funded projects are influencing various stages of the policy process: http://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/files/241970.pdf.

ANR's Strategic Initiatives leaders include the following:

• David Doll, Sustainable Food Systems
• John Harper, Sustainable Natural Ecosystems
• Keith Nathaniel, Healthy Families and Communities
• Doug Parker, Water Quality, Quantity, and Security
• Cheryl Wilen, Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases

For more information about ANR's Strategic Initiatives, visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/StrategicInitiatives.

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