Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience: Target Audience includes Deans and Directors of the land grant universities in the Northeast, professionals at USDA and within NIFA, faculty and educators across the region, policymakers, planners, citizens and other audiences, depending on the topic. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We engage several postdocs and graduate students in our research projects, who are exposed to new ideas, methods, research resources, and colleagues across the nation. Our communications staff member had several opportunities to develop research press releases based on the Center's published research, and through the resulting collaboration she participated in with senior science editors at Penn State, has become more effective at developing these pieces. In turn, these pieces (and others like it, e.g., research briefs) make our research accessible to a wider audience. Our business manager, hired in 2019, continues to build on her experience of managing budgets and grants. The presentations and papers authored by Center researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. The teams funded by our small-grants program gain exposure to new programming ideas and many receive training in those programs. They, in turn, deliver content to communities which also benefit from new knowledge. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We shared resources generated by the Center through our website, press releases, our bi-monthly newsletter, social media platforms and multiple presentations given by the Director and postdoctoral scholars and partners, as documented in our Annual Report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Key outcomes and impacts of this multi-year project have been described in detail in prior-year progress reports and in NERCRD Annual Reports, so this report will focus on highlighting the more recent accomplishments. Examples of impacts resulting from this project include: A new model developed by NERCRD can potentially show supply-chain vulnerabilities to future shocks, such as pandemics or climate-change impacts. The National Extension Tourism network, which for decades operated as a loosely organized ad-hoc group, now has a formal organizational structure with elected officers and more than 800 engaged members, has received external funding from multiple sources, and is currently exploring sustainability strategies to ensure its longevity as an organization. Several multi-state groups of Extension and research professionals have formed new knowledge-sharing networks, and continue to create impacts in their communities by applying this shared knowledge. Goal 1: Extension-Community Capacity Building During the life of this funding award, we worked with three multi-state teams of Extension and research professionals through our 2017-2018 small-grants program, which was aimed at helping Northeast Land Grant University faculty and educators document the impacts of their work while also encouraging collaboration across state lines. These teams, their objectives, and their outcomes and impacts are described thoroughly in earlier funding reports and in our 2019 Annual Report. We also funded a new round of small grants in the 2019-2020 funding cycle, with three multi-state teams selected for funding, as described in our 2020 Annual Report. These projects are seeing preliminary impacts, including the formation of a peer network of colleagues interested in ongoing collaboration around the topic of Best Practices in Bike/Pedestrian Trail Data Collection and Monitoring aimed at creating a regional unified strategy for collecting, aggregating, and using bike-pedestrian data to inform local and regional decision making and planning and transportation investments. They are also exploring further funding options. Another outcome of this project is a peer-reviewed research article published in Choices magazine (Brown et al., 2021). Another major outcome of our capacity-building work is the scaling up of the National Extension Tourism network that has been made possible in part by the support that NERCRD and the other RRDCs have provided during the past three years. Beginning in 2018 with conference-planning support, NERCRD has since provided leadership and organizational support that allowed NET to: engage in a strategic planning process; launch a new organizational structure; create a new website and communications platform, including a national webinar series hosted and co-organized by NERCRD; apply for and receive multiple funding sources; and hold two successful national conferences, most recently in November 2021. With NERCRD support, the NET research committee produced a report titled "Extension Tourism--Impacts and Opportunities of Land- and Sea-Grant Programming," which is the result of a national survey carried out in prior years and described in previous funding reports. The NET report documents the distribution, depth, and breadth of tourism and outdoor recreation programming offered by the Land- and Sea Grant Extension services; demonstrates the regional impacts of this programming; and, highlights opportunities for expanding this programming nationally. We look forward to continuing work with NET and are exploring the possibility of replicating this model of support for similar groups of multi-state Extension and research personnel. Goal 2: Workforce Development, Entrepreneurship and Job Creation, and Economic Resilience As described in annual progress reports, we entered into a subaward contract with Dr. Charlie French, University of New Hampshire, who conducted a research fellowship aimed at identifying and describing the characteristics of resilient communities. Dr. French focused on rural innovation and his resulting edited book (to be published in February 2022), Building Rural Community Resilience Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship, will "provide insights and best practices for rural community and economic development scholars and practitioners seeking to strengthen the rural innovation ecosystem." (Source: Routledge, https://bit.ly/3I6HobK). NERCRD researchers also developed a model to help visualize the interconnectedness of businesses and industries over geographic space, which potentially can show supply-chain vulnerabilities to future shocks, such as pandemics or climate-change impacts. They applied their model for illustrative purposes to three industries representing different sectors of the economy -- grain farming, motor vehicle manufacturing, and data processing -- resulting in geographic visualizations of each of these industries' supply chains. In the case of grain farming, their visualizations confirm that grain farming is concentrated in the nation's 'breadbasket' states of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and the Dakotas. However, because the model considers upstream sellers of grain inputs and downstream grain buyers, it reveals that Arkansas, California and Washington also play important roles in the overall grain supply chain. Our 2019 ARC-funded research on Economic Resilience in Appalachia remains relevant as communities begin to plan for recovery from COVID-19, and we have continued to share it via presentations to stakeholder groups such as the Appalachia Leadership Institute and via interviews with news media. Goal 3: Local and Regional Foods During this project timeline, "resilience" took on new meaning and urgency with the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and our research focus pivoted accordingly. For example, through a partnership on a USDA AMS cooperative agreement led by UK, NERCRD researchers examined COVID-19 impacts on local and regional food systems and emerging strategies and innovations that address these shocks. The project collected and disseminated accessible ideas, best practices, and readily adoptable approaches to COVID19 adaptation through its website and webinar series. NERCRD researchers also launched several lines of inquiry looking at the pandemic's impacts on food systems, which have been shared broadly through publications, presentations, and social media. Most recently, NERCRD research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics showed that food pantries and similar community-based services played a critical role in helping Americans meet their food needs, especially during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that middle-class Americans benefited the most from these services, demonstrating a key role these programs can play in times of crisis. Goal 4: Land Use and Balanced Use of Natural Resources As reported in the prior-year progress report, our work has continued exploring the characteristics, contributions and relative performance of agriculture in the U.S. Northeast compared to the rest of the nation, with a draft manuscript nearing completion. Goal 5: Issues Related to Behavioral Health in Communities As reported in the prior-year progress report, former Postdoc Devon Meadowcroft explored the links between opioid-related deaths and high-risk jobs, and presented her findings at the virtual session of the 2020 Southern Region Science Association. She found that a county's percentage of workers in high-risk jobs is positively associated with their number of opioid-related deaths, which holds true for both illicit opioids and prescription opioids. These findings suggest that work-related injuries in high-risk industries could lead to more prescriptions for opioids, which in turn translate to higher rates of opioid misuse.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, S. J. (2020, October 2). Input Output Tables and Other Data Sources for Network-Based Research in Economics and Regional Science. University of Nevada-Reno Economics Department.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Goetz, S. J., Tian, Z., Schmidt, C., & Pan, Y. (2021). Pennsylvania Food Insufficiency Reached New High at the End of 2020 [NERCRD COVID-19 Data Report 21-01]. https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/covid-19-issues-briefs/data-brief-pennsylvania-food-insufficiency-reached-new-high-at-the-end-of-2020
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Rocker, S. J. (2020, October). Building Social Infrastructure for Resilience: Developing Networks in the Agri-Food System and Beyond. Panel presentation/discussion at the online Resilience Academy for Small Business and Community, University of New Hampshire Extension and Small Business Development Center of New Hampshire, online.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Rocker, S. J. (2021, June 2). Building Social Infrastructure for Resilience. University of New Hampshire Extension⿿s Resilience Academy, Online.
|
Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience includes Deans and Directors of the land grant universities in the Northeast, professionals at USDA and within NIFA, faculty and educators across the region, policymakers, planners, citizens and other audiences, depending on the topic. Changes/Problems:The global pandemic that took hold in the U.S. mid-way through this reporting period caused disruptions to the way we work and to several in-person events in our plan of work. We pivoted to virtual programming where possible. We are working with our small-grant funded teams as they also pivot their project activities and timelines. Two postdoctoral scholars have taken new positions, and we are currently recruiting to fill these vacancies. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We engage several postdocs and graduate students in our research projects, who are exposed to new ideas, methods, research resources, and colleagues across the nation. Our participation at the USDA Rural Development's Pennsylvania Community Prosperity Summit provided representatives from community-based organizations with insight into working with federal partners. The teams funded by our small-grants program gain exposure to new programming ideas and many receive training in those programs. They, in turn, deliver content to communities which also benefit from new knowledge. The presentations and papers authored by Center researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. For example, our COVID-19 Issues Brief series has been accessed online by more than 2,000 unique visitors, and there is no way to know who those visitors are, what disciplines they hail from, or how widely they have shared the briefs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We shared resources generated by the Center through our website, press releases, our bi-monthly newsletter, social media platforms and multiple presentations given by the Director and postdoctoral scholars and partners, as documented in our Annual Report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As described in our NERCRD 2019 progress report (grant # 2019-51150-29876), we will continue to carry out research and outreach underway in our portfolio of grants, to link stakeholders within the NE land-grant system, and to translate research findings from various efforts for a general audience in order to maximize learning outcomes. The remainder of the funding in this grant will go toward supporting the teams we're funding through our small-grants program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Examples of this project's impact: · Our rapidly implemented research on food system impacts of the COVID-19 crisis revealed bottlenecks in supply chains, changes in consumer preferences and food-sourcing strategies, and potential future hot-spots and weak points in the food system. · More Extension staff are aware of the network-analysis approach to supporting new farmer networks. · 35 Extension and research faculty from nine states are collaborating in new partnerships as a result of our small-grant funding program. · Several organizations were able to pivot planned in-person events to virtual events (due to pandemic) with Center support. · Our research carried out in collaboration with ARC received widespread media attention, resulting in more communities and policy makers being aware of strategies that contribute to resilience. Goal 1: Extension-Community Capacity Building As reported in our NERCRD 2017 report, we issued another call for proposals to our small-grants program. We selected four projects for funding, with 35 individuals from nine states participating: · A team led by PSU and WVU is bringing to the Northeast the Marketing Hometown America program, an educational program that helps guide rural communities through the decision-making process on how to market themselves to potential new residents. · A team led by UNH is using a train-the-trainer-approach to share the work of the UNH Main Street Academy model in WV. · A team led by PSU is bringing the "Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities" initiative to Pennsylvania to extend its Northeast reach. This community development initiative focuses on entrepreneurial education and strengthens entrepreneurial networks of small to medium enterprises for economic growth and community revitalization. · A team led by UConn builds on learning from the NERCRD-funded (2017-18) Downtowns and Trails Program Assessment and will involve sharing and documenting best practices in data collection and monitoring in Northeast states. As the global pandemic took hold in the Northeast in early 2020, each of these funded teams had to pivot in its approach, and we are supportive of their efforts. For example, the UConn-led team will be implementing a virtual program with technical support provided by NERCRD staff. Similarly, the Center provided substantial technical support that enabled other organizations to pivot in-person events to virtual programming due to the pandemic. NERCRD staff served on the planning committee for the virtual conference of the National Association for Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP), and provided hosting for several of its virtual sessions; Postdoc Sarah Rocker led the planning of the companion meeting of the nation's state CD program leaders, which also was held virtually; and, staff are hosting multiple online sessions of the Southern Region Science Association annual meeting. Led by Postdoc Rocker, we are exploring the potential formation of Regional Research and Practice Affinity Groups as a way for Northeast-based practitioners and scholars to connect on core programming and research topics across institutions in the region. A related survey was introduced at a NACDEP regional meeting and later shared via the newsletter. Results indicate strong interest, particularly in the topic areas of Rethinking Community Economic Systems, and Community and Leadership Capacity. As reported in prior-year funding report, our support to the National Extension Tourism team included considerable planning assistance for their October 2019 national conference, and ongoing administrative support, webinar hosting, website development, and mailing list maintenance. The webinar series that launched in February 2020 has drawn diverse audiences from across the nation in which Extension staff and others can share ideas and resources around tourism programming, including ideas for supporting communities as they respond to the pandemic crisis. Goal 2: Workforce Development, Entrepreneurship and Job Creation and Economic Resilience As mentioned in earlier reports, in 2018 we entered into a subaward contract with Dr. Charlie French, University of New Hampshire, who is conducting a research fellowship aimed at better understanding the characteristics of resilient rural communities. During this reporting period, Dr. French collaborated with researchers at Penn State, other land-grant institutions around the country, and institutions and organizations internationally to identify and document characteristics maintained by rural communities that have rebounded from economic decline and to provide case studies that elucidate how those characteristics were manifest and the lessons that other places can glean. A particular focus of the research is rural innovation and the ways in which innovation ecosystems lay the groundwork to support the growth of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in rural places. Goal 3: Local and Regional Foods We drew on our network's collective expertise to execute rapid research on the COVID-19 crisis as it relates to the food supply chain (https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/covid-19-issues-briefs). For example, we examined potential bottlenecks along fruit and vegetable supply chains, focusing on establishment locations relative to concentrations of COVID-19 infections. We found that workers in the fruit and vegetable industry retail markets are potentially at greatest risk to exposure to the COVID-19, followed by workers in specialized local freight trucking and wholesale markets and fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers. We also examined how consumer interest has changed since the advent of the pandemic, by observing Google Search trends. This relatively quick examination of Google searches shows how real-time data can be collected and interpreted to understand what is preoccupying consumers from week to week during a pandemic. We are extending this research with funding from Penn State, and in partnership with Information Science colleagues at Penn State and Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar) to examine local conditions related to the food system in different states (including rural areas of the nation), from state by state (and major metro area) consumer search patterns. In turn, we will examine how these can be used to forecast shortages in real time in different parts of the country. Our research (funded by a NIFA Capacity Building grant) looking at the social networks of small-scale and minority specialty-crop farmers in Tennessee, Maryland, and Delaware was published this year, showing that farmers who played a more prominent role in their network reported greater sales. The findings can help farming groups and agricultural support organizations leverage networks to enhance the farmers' success. TAC Member and co-author Andy Wetherill presented on how he leveraged this research in support of the development of an African American Farmers Assoc. in Delaware at the NACDEP virtual conference in June 2020. Goal 4: Land Use and Balanced Use of Natural Resources Our work has continued exploring the characteristics, contributions and relative performance of agriculture in the U.S. Northeast compared to the rest of the nation, with a draft manuscript nearing completion. We presented our preliminary findings to a Penn State Extension Land Use webinar in November 2019, to an audience of 100. Goal 5: Issues Related to Behavioral Health in Communities Postdoc Meadowcroft has been exploring the links between opioid-related deaths and high-risk jobs, and presented her findings at the virtual session of the Southern Region Science Association. Her findings are described in more detail in our subsequent funding report (#2019-51150-29876).
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Cleary, R., Goetz, S. J., & Schmidt, C. (June 27, 2020). "Population Thresholds Models for Local Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturing," [conference session]. 14th Annual Conference of the American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE), Verona, Italy. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19.)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Dobis, Elizabeth A., Neil Reid, Anil Hira, Paul D. Gottlieb, and Stephan J. Goetz. Trends in the Co-Location of Grapes and Wineries vs Hops and Breweries: 2002 to 2017. Presented at the 66th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, Pittsburgh, PA, November 14, 2019.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Dobis, Elizabeth A., Neil Reid, Claudia Schmidt, and Stephan J. Goetz. The Role of Craft Breweries in Expanding (Local) Hop Production. Journal of Wine Economics 14, no. 4 (November 2019): 37482. https://doi.org/10.1017/jwe.2019.17.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J., and Claudia Schmidt. Agriculture in the Northeast: Why It Matters? Invited presentation to the Penn State Extension Land Use Webinar Series, November 20, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J. COVID-19 Economic Impacts on Agriculture and Rural Areas. Council of State Governments East, May 22, 2020. https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/presentations/Goetz-CouncilStateGovernments-5.22.2020.pdf.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J. COVID-19, Networks and Regional Science. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-2, April 1, 2020. https://bit.ly/2xFyS3U.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J. Social Capital May Increase Social Distancing. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-4, April 15, 2020. https://bit.ly/3h7equd.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J., and Kristen Devlin. Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. Presented at the Penn State Extension Weekly Update, online, May 14, 2020.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J., Devon Meadowcroft, Claudia Schmidt, Prasenjit Mitra, and Francesco Di Gioia. In the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Industry, Market Workers and Local Specialized Freight Truckers May Be at Greatest Risk. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-10, May 12, 2020. https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/covid-19-issues-briefs/fruit-vegetable-sector-vulnerabilities-covid-19.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J., Claudia Schmidt, Lisa Chase, and Jane M. Kolodinsky. Americans Food Spending Patterns Explain Devastating Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Agriculture. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-9, May 1, 2020. https://bit.ly/3dppu49.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J. Community/Federal Partner Perspective: The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. Presented at the USDA Rural Developments Pennsylvania Community Prosperity Summit, University Park, PA, November 22, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J. Network Applications in Regional Science: New Insights from Old Tools. Presidential Address delivered at the 66th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, Pittsburgh, PA, November 14, 2019.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Khanal, Aditya, Fisseha Tegegne, Lan Li, Stephan Goetz, Yicheol Han, Stephan Tubene, and Andy Wetherill. Small and Minority Farmers Knowledge and Resource Sharing Networks, and Farm Sales: Findings from Communities in Tennessee, Maryland, and Delaware. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, April 17, 2020, 114. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2020.093.012.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Meadowcroft, Devon, and Stephan J. Goetz (August 19, 2020). The Relationship between Opioid-Related Deaths and High-Risk Jobs [virtual conference session]. Southern Regional Science Association Annual Meeting. Online.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Meadowcroft, Devon, and Stephan J. Goetz (March 18, 2020). The Role of Firm Innovation and Overlapping Labor Market Areas in U.S. Income Inequality [conference session]. Western Regional Science Association Annual Meeting, Waikiki, HI. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19).
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Meadowcroft, Devon, and Stephan J. Goetz (March 18, 2020). Connecting Overlapping Labor Market Areas to U.S. Innovation: A Regional Analysis. Western Regional Science Association Annual Meeting, Waikiki, HI. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19.)
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
NERCRD 2019 Annual Report, March 14, 2020. https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/annual-report.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Podor, Anne, and Stephan J. Goetz. Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurship Outcomes in Higher Education in Estonian HIEs. Presented at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, New Orleans, LA, January 6, 2020.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, Claudia. Beyond Corn Mazes and Hayrides. Presented at the Women in Agritourism Risk Management Webinar Series, April 21, 2020.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, Claudia, Stephan Goetz, Sarah Rocker, and Zheng Tian. Google Searches Reveal Changing Consumer Food Sourcing in the COVID-19 Pandemic. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-7, May 4, 2020. https://bit.ly/2xuEG0i.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, Claudia, Zheng Tian, Stephan J. Goetz, Benjamin Bartley, Brian Moyer, and Sarah J. Rocker. Farms with Direct to Consumer Sales in the Northeast Region and COVID-19: Some Early Challenges and Responses. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-1, April 1, 2020. https://bit.ly/2Jybubm.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J., Zheng Tian, Claudia Schmidt, and Devon Meadowcroft. Rural COVID-19 Cases Lag Urban Areas but Are Growing Much More Rapidly. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-3, April 3, 2020.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Tian, Zheng, and Stephan J. Goetz. Google Searches Predict Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-5, May 1, 2020. https://bit.ly/3f9CwV6.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Tian, Zheng, and Stephan J. Goetz. Nonmetro COVID-19 Case Growth Higher in Metro-Adjacent Counties, but Case-Fatality Ratio Is Lower so Far. NERCRD COVID-19 Issues Brief No. 2020-8, May 5, 2020. https://bit.ly/2YzZDC9.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Wetherill, Andy. How Network Analysis of a Minority Farmers Group Helped Expand Socio-Economic Opportunities and Engage Youth in Agriculture. Presented at the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals Virtual Conference, online, June 1, 2020.
|
Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience: Target Audience includes Deans and Directors of the land grant universities in the Northeast, professionals at USDA and within NIFA, faculty and educators across the region, policymakers, planners, citizens and other audiences, depending on the topic. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As reported in the prior-year funding report, the Center employed six postdocs during this reporting period, each of whom gained valuable on-the-job experience working on several different funded projects, including the NIFA-funded Rural Emergence and Vitality project, in which two postdocs learned the process for gaining security clearance to access Census data. The visiting postdoc will gain experience using new methodological approaches and will build her network of scholars in the US with similar research interests. Our communications staff member had several opportunities to develop research press releases and through the resulting collaboration she participated in with senior science editors at Penn State, has become more effective at developing these pieces. In turn, these pieces (and others like it, e.g., research briefs) make our research accessible to a wider audience. We hired a new business manager, who is expanding on her experience of managing budgets and grants. The presentations and papers authored by Center researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We shared resources generated by the Center through our website, our bi-monthly newsletter, social media platforms, and multiple presentations given by the Director and postdoctoral scholars, as documented in our Annual Report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to carry out the work underway in our portfolio of grants, including a NIFA-funded competitive grant on rural innovation and another NIFA-funded project on agricultural clusters led by Paul Gottlieb (Rutgers). We will continue to link stakeholders within the NE land-grant system through our small grants program, through our newsletter, website, and social media channels, and through our work with multi-state groups such as National Extension Tourism team and NACDEP. We will support the work of Charlie French on the project he is undertaking as a Center Fellow. We will bring to an orderly close our AMS-funded technical assistance project, as well as our NIFA-funded conference grant. We will continue to work with the three other RRDCs on national initiatives, including a survey of our small grant recipients and other stakeholders to document the collective impact of the four Centers. We will translate findings from our various research efforts for a general audience in order to maximize the learning opportunities. We are scheduled to make a number of presentations at additional venues, including the NARSC Conference where Stephan Goetz will be delivering the presidential address.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We continued the work underway in our portfolio of grants, including the new NIFA-funded competitive grant on rural innovation, the NIFA-funded Agricultural Clusters project led by Dr. Paul Gottlieb at Rutgers University, and the EDA-funded Regional Economic Development project led by Dr. Timothy Slaper at Indiana University. As reported in the previous year's funding report, we added two new postdocs to our workforce, which will bolster our capacity to carry out the work on these and other projects. We also are hosting a visiting postdoctoral scholar from Estonia, Anne Podor, whose year-long fellowship is financed by the Baltic American Freedom Foundation with the goal of fostering new research collaboration and providing development opportunities for scholars to leverage upon the return to their home countries. The aim of Dr. Podor's stay at Penn State is to carry out research on entrepreneurship and innovation in rural areas with combing Estonian and US research data and different methodological approaches under the guidance of Stephan Goetz. The research will more specifically address the characteristics and measurement of rural entrepreneurship and innovation, the impact of local socioeconomic environment and actors on entrepreneurship and innovation, and the utilization of local resources for innovation. The main outcomes of the project will be the creation of new cooperation network new research publications and sharing of best practices of entrepreneurship and innovation education. We continue to leverage the outcomes of previously funded projects, including the $5 million NIFA-funded food security project, Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast, as research from that project is making its way through the peer-review publication process. For example, a recently published study (Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, January 2019) found that for communities seeking to add a new food hub, they should have a population of at least 182,000 people in order to be able to sustain that food hub over time. Center staff "translated" this manuscript for a lay audience, resulting in a Penn State press release and a soon-to-be published research brief. Along the same lines, we are producing a research brief series aimed at making accessible the findings from three studies of rural innovation, conducted by teams that received funding through a competitive award program coordinated by the Center in collaboration with the Economic Research Service. The first of these briefs was published in our July 2019 newsletter, and two more are in various stages of production for release in the near future. Our work with the Appalachian Regional Commission-funded project identified the economic resilience strategies shared in common by Appalachian communities that enjoyed persistent economic growth following the 2008 Great Recession, and the results were shared widely and picked up by multiple news organizations in Appalachia. The 2019 Economic Report of the President cited three scientific papers written by NERCRD and collaborating researchers. One examines the economic conditions of Rural America during the current administration. The other two focus on the determinants of self-employment and its effects on the local economy. The range of years of papers cited (2009-2018) demonstrates that NERCRD research has short- and longer-term impacts. Similarly, our Social Capital index continues to be an important resource to researchers across disciplines, and Center staff routinely receive inquiries from researchers and practitioners about this resource. In response to the demand for these and other data sets, we have created a new area on the Center's website for easier access. A new paper by PI Stephan Goetz and former Northeast Center research associate Yicheol Han advances the field of network science by applying a well-known mathematical concept in a novel way, to measure how relationships in networks change over time. It was published in PLOS ONE in July 2019. This new approach enables network scientists to see how any type of network reorganizes itself in its entirety in response to a significant event, and to measure the impact of such reorganization. As reported previously, our work with the National Extension Tourism team has ramped up as the team's biennial national conference approaches in October. Graduate Researcher Sarah Denney provided research support to this group by merging recently collected data from Sea Grant educators into the national survey of Extension educators regarding their tourism work. These results will be presented during the conference plenary session by WVU's Doug Arbogast. As the Northeast will be hosting the 2020 NACDEP conference, we also are assisting with the planning and serving as the RRDC liaison to the NACDEP Board of Directors. We launched and continue to promote our 2019-2020 small grants program aimed at helping Northeast LGU faculty and educators document the impacts of their work while also encouraging collaboration across state lines. Proposals in the topic areas of innovation or tourism are especially encouraged. A review panel has been identified, and we expect to announce the funded proposals in early November 2019. We continue to present our research findings to a broad array of stakeholders. During this reporting period, we reached several new audiences, including the PA Planning Association and the National Governors Association. PI Stephan Goetz was invited to present to the latter as part of a regional workshop on "Good Jobs for All Americans." He gave a presentation on "Rural Trends, Issues and Opportunities in the Northeast U.S.," which provided context for a special session focused on empowering the rural workforce. As described in the prior-year funding report, we have entered into a subaward agreement with former TAC Chair, Charlie French (University of New Hampshire), who will carry out a fellowship aimed at exploring rural innovation and strategies used by rural communities that have rebounded from economic decline. His work will begin in September 2019. Center Director Stephan Goetz continues to meet with other RDC Directors on a quarterly basis in Washington, DC, which has proven to be an effective avenue for strengthening partnerships and making progress on joint initiatives. Most recently we put into place a plan for measuring the collective impact of the RRDCs various small grants programs.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Cleary, Rebecca, Stephan J. Goetz, Dawn Thilmany, and Houtian Ge. 2019. Excess Competition Among Food Hubs. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 44 (1): 1-S7.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Dobis, Dobis, Elizabeth A., Anil Hira, Paul D. Gottlieb, Stephan J. Goetz, and Neil Reid. 2018. Grapes and Wineries in the United States: Geographic Location and Industrial Colocation. presented at the 12th Annual American Association of Wine Economists Conference, Ithaca, NY, June 12.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Goetz, Stephan J. 2018. NGA Regional Leadership Workshop: Rural Trends, Issues and Opportunities in the Northeast U.S. presented at the National Governors Association Regional Leadership Workshop on Good Jobs for All Americans, Pittsburgh, PA, September 13.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Han, Yicheol, and Stephan J. Goetz. 2019. Modeling the Local Input-Output Network Using County-Level Production and Consumption Estimates, and National Input-Output Table. presented at the Western Regional Science Association, Napa, CA, February 12.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
2018 Annual Report. Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/annual-report
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Dobis, Elizabeth A., Stephan J. Goetz, Mark Skidmore, and Heather M. Stephens. 2019. American Life Expectancy: Geographic Inequality and Community Interaction. presented at the Southern Regional Science Association, Arlington, VA, April 6. https://easychair.org/smart-program/2019SRSA/2019-04-06.html.
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