Abstract
The agricultural industries of the United States are a vital part of our economy, as are the land-grant universities that are inextricably tied to those industries. Given this importance, NIFA engaged TEConomy Partners, LLC, to categorize and describe the broad range of R&D and associated extension activity undertaken by the land-grant university system and supported by NIFA funding. The analysis in this chapter provides this evaluation and categorization and compares Capacity and Competitive funded research projects to the larger body of published agricultural research. We find that, compared to overall publications, Capacity projects are more focused on production-oriented areas than basic sciences, while Competitively funded research has its largest focus in basic sciences. Additionally, a number of areas that are small or missing from overall publications are present in notably higher concentrations in Capacity projects. The focus areas of both Capacity and Competitively funded research projects follow the goals of the NIFA National Challenge Areas and the 2014 Farm Bill. Finally, we find evidence of substantial return on investment for both forms of funding.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, for the sake of simplicity, the terms “agriculture,” “agricultural sciences,” and “agricultural industries” are considered to also embrace forestry, fisheries, and other natural resource-based industries that are of relevance to the work of the USDA, NIFA, and the nation’s land-grant universities.
- 2.
Simon Tripp, Martin Grueber, Dylan Yetter, Joseph Simkins and Alyssa Yetter. 2017. “National Evaluation of capacity programs: Quantitative and Qualitative Review of NIFA Capacity Funding.” TEConomy Partners, LLC, for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). March 2017. Available online at https://nifa.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource/NIFA Capacity Funding Review - TEConomy Final Report.pdf.
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The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has more than 2200 permanent scientists working on approximately 1100 research projects at more than 100 locations across the United States.
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American Society of Plant Biologists. Unleashing a Decade of Innovation in Plant Sciences: A Vision for 2015–2025.
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Competitive Funding includes the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), plus Mandatory Programs including the Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI), Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Initiative, Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI), and smaller Competitive Programs.
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Tripp, S., Grueber, M., Yetter, A., Yetter, D. (2018). Land-Grant University Research as a Driver of Progress in Agriscience. In: Kalaitzandonakes, N., Carayannis, E., Grigoroudis, E., Rozakis, S. (eds) From Agriscience to Agribusiness. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67958-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67958-7_10
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