2017 UC ANR Competitive Grants Program/High Risk, High Rewards recipients announced

I am pleased to announce funding decisions for the 2017 UC ANR Competitive Grants Program/High Risk, High Rewards Program. As in past years, the number of requests received exceeds funding available. With 45 competitive grant proposals requesting over $7 million and six high-risk high-reward proposals requesting over another $500,000, we are pleased to be able to support around 25 percent overall.

I want to thank the Strategic Initiative Panels for their work in screening letters of intent and the Technical Review Panels for their efforts reviewing proposals for technical merit, feasibility and extension prior to the review by Program Council. Program Council then reviewed proposals against all the criteria and had the difficult task of making recommendations to me how best to distribute the finite resources available. I commend the principal investigators and their teams for their submissions. While each submission represented important work, not all proposals could be funded.

I am particularly pleased to see that funded proposals represent each of the Strategic Initiatives and have as principal investigators advisors, specialists, academic administrators and AES faculty from each of the AES campuses, our county academics, and our UC ANR statewide programs. The partnering in each of the proposals illustrates one of the principles of our ANR Promise.

The Strategic Initiative Leaders will be sending review comments out to all applicants over the next few weeks.

Congratulations to all of the awardees. The list of funded proposals is below and also posted on the 2017 funding opportunities web page.

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

Title                                                                                  Principal Investigator              Award Amount

Pathways to Your Future: Destination UC                                    Shannon Horrillo                      $200,000

Massive tree mortality in the Sierra Nevada:                               Jodi Axelson                             $200,000
Consequences for forest health

Reducing nitrate leaching to the groundwater by accounting         Daniel Geisseler                       $199,978
for the soils' capacity to supply N through mineralization

Advancing urban irrigation management to enhance water           Amir Haghverdi                        $199,975
use efficiency                                                                          

The California Master Beekeeper Program: Development of a        Elina Nino                               $199,949
continuous train-the-trainer education effort for CA beekeepers                                                                       

Silent straws: understanding water demands from woody             Lenya Quinn-Davidson             $199,937
encroachment in California's oak woodlands                              

Impact of a warmer and drier future on rangeland ecosystems      Jeremy James                         $199,831
and ecosystem services                                                          

Closing the adaptive management loop for sustainable                 Leslie Roche                            $199,502
working rangelands                                                         

Developing a culturally relevant civic science approach to             Steve Worker                           $194,768
improving scientific literacy for Latino youth                  

Creating cyst nematode suppressive soils by managing                James Borneman                      $100,000
indigenous populations of the hyperparasitic fungus
Dactylellaoviparasitica (High-risk/High-reward)                                                

Smart Farming: Monitoring the health of chickens                        Maja Makagon                           $81,293
(High-risk/High-reward)

Recruiting the next generation of extension professionals             Jennifer Heguv                           $11,030

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