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- Fall 99 "Special Report" -
New state initiative will bolster agricultural research activities on four CSU campuses
From CATI Publication #991001
Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved.
Recent passage of the California State University Agricultural Research Initiative (CSU/ARI) by the California State Legislature and Governor Gray Davis has provided significant new avenues of opportunity for the CSU to perform applied agricultural and natural resources research. The CSU/ARI also offers exciting new opportunities to fully utilize the wealth of existing CSU faculty and staff expertise and the ability to build upon that expertise for the benefit of the state’s agricultural industry and consumers, as well as CSU research and academic programs.
The CSU/ARI is a multiple campus collaborative partnership between the CSU colleges of agriculture, California State University, Fresno (Fresno State); California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly, Pomona); California State University; Chico (Chico State); and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly, SLO), and the state’s agriculture and natural resources industries and allied business communities. The State General Fund Budget annually allocates $5 million to fund the CSU/ARI through the CSU budget. State funding is required to be annually matched at least one-to-one with industry resources.
Under the governance of a board of governors consisting of four CSU presidents, the UC Vice President of Agriculture and Natural Resources and four statewide industry representatives, the initiative’s member colleges of agriculture respond collaboratively to the state agricultural industry's needs for applied research and technical assistance in both traditional and non traditional agricultural environments. The initiative builds upon each campus’s previously successful university-industry investments in order to respond to the increasing demands placed on the state's agricultural industry to be more productive and to adopt new innovative technology. It provides seed funding to support potentially high impact projects that respond to the unique diversity of needs felt by California's rural and urban agricultural communities locally, regionally and statewide. It also facilitates new opportunities for CSU colleges of agriculture to collaborate with the University of California and to complement the basic research undertaken by UC.
CSU/ARI projects and programs are designed to pursue research activities that have a high probability of improving the economic efficiency, productivity, profitability, and sustainability of California agriculture and its allied industries. CSU/ARI programs lead to consumer sensitive and environmentally sound food and agriculture systems and foster public confidence in food safety and agricultural research and production systems. The CSU/ARI focuses the collective expertise of the California State University system's four colleges of agriculture on finding immediate and practical solutions for high priority issues through a system of university-industry partnerships. Agricultural trade and commodity groups, associations and individual industry members themselves have collectively identified the priority research focus areas.
All the CSU colleges of agriculture have documented increased industry demand for CSU research, development, and technology transfer activities focused in the following areas:
- Agricultural business management
- Biodiversity (biological diversity) management
- Biotechnology (plant and animal)
- Food processing, safety, nutrition, and new product development
- Irrigation management and technology
- Natural resources management
- Production management systems and cultural practices
- Public policy development
The California Agricultural Technology Institute (CATI) is charged with the responsibility of CSU/ARI administration. CSU/ARI funding is allocated from the CSU budget to CATI for distribution to the respective CSU colleges of agriculture. CSU/ARI funding allocations are expressly designed to encourage CSU system and individual campus excellence in applied agricultural research and technology transfer through a combination of competitive research and capacity building enhancements. Individual campus funding is allocated through the respective colleges of agriculture on a competitive basis and must be utilized for agricultural, allied business or natural resource applied research. Research funding opportunities, however, are not exclusive to the colleges of agriculture. CSU/ARI funding allocations will be made annually in the following categories:
- CSU/ARI System-Wide Competitive Research Matching Funds
The CSU/ARI annually allocates $1,000,000 in support of a multiple campus shared pool of competitive research matching funds. This funding is restricted to public domain projects and is available annually to all four CSU colleges of agriculture on a competitive basis to pursue research activities of statewide significance.
- Individual Campus Competitive Research Funds
The CSU/ARI annually allocates $1,550,000 to be dispersed by CATI among the four CSU colleges of agriculture in support of individual intra-campus competitive applied agriculture and natural resources research. Individual campus funding allocations are made to allow specifically for addressing unique local and/or regional project activities.
- Individual Campus Capacity Building Funds
The CSU/ARI annually allocates $1,920,000 system-wide as individual campus capacity building funds. This funding provides for the essential otherwise unavailable investment capital, which extends and enhances each college of agriculture’s ability to provide for an increased demand for local and regional as well as statewide research and technology transfer activity. This funding is primarily utilized to fund research scientist and technician positions, faculty release time, graduate and undergraduate assistantships and scientific equipment necessary to facilitate high priority research activity.
- CSU/ARI (CATI) System Wide Administration and Information Dissemination Funds
The California Agricultural Technology Institute (CATI) has been charged by the CSU and the California State Legislature to provide for CSU/ARI central administration and is allocated $250,000 annually for this purpose. CATI is a non-profit, research and education institution created in 1984 by a mandate of the California State Legislature to develop and evaluate new and promising technologies that could have the potential for improving the economic performance of California agriculture. Based at California State University, Fresno, CATI operates under a permanent research mandate from the CSU and the California State Legislature.
- Individual Campus Administration Funds
Each of the four colleges of agriculture is annually allocated $70,000 in support of individual campus administration and coordination activities. Each campus is responsible for providing a campus coordinator and working cooperatively and collaboratively with the CSU/ARI executive director and the CATI administrative office.
The initial CSU/ARI startup funding cycle will run for 21 months, from October 1, 1999 to June 30, 2001. Subsequent funding cycles will conform to the CSU fiscal year budget period of July 1st through June 30th. The first Request For Proposals was issued Monday, October 4th, and proposals are due on December 15, 1999.
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CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE - CATI
College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology
California State University, Fresno