Recipient Organization
MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
BOZEMAN,MT 59717
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The 2023 Host Institution renewal facilitates continued efforts to provide new technologies and principles to amplify climate resiliency through the various Western SARE funding programs. Attention to goals described in this POW will bolster most of the priorities of the 2023-2026 USDA Science and Research Strategy for Cultivating Scientific Innovation effort specifically Driving Climate - Smart Solutions (Priority 2), Bolstering Nutrition Security & Health (Priority 3) and Translating Research into Action (Priority 5). The first steps in contributing to the USDA priorities are to rewrite the various CFPs to broaden the scope of submitted proposals, leverage the cultural, production and scientific diversity of the Administrative Council, finalize the regional Strategic Plan and hire an Underrepresented Outreach Coordinator for the Western Region by March 2025.In FY 2024 the Administrative Council (AC) will vote on a slate of nominees to achieve geographical and ethnic diversity. In a parallel action the Administrative Council subcommittee has received feedback from the AC and will update the Strategic Plan draft for review during the Summer 2024 meeting. These updates will populate a culturally, technically, and ecologically diverse technical review panel to identify proposals with defined climate adaptation outcomes (USDA Priority 2). The approved Strategic Plan coupled with the expanded network of educators generated through the second BPASS conference will sketch out a roadmap to reach more underrepresented localities and individuals (USDA Priority 5) and generate guidelines for the Region's participation in the upcoming Food Loss and Waster Initiative (USDA Priority 3) in the Region
Animal Health Component
70%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
70%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
Actualizing these actions necessitates a stepwise approach because the needs of the Western Region are layered with complexity arising from a large, ethnically, and physically diverse environment. The initial steps are framed in this 2024 Cooperative Agreement Work Plan.To increase grant submissions from under-represented producers and communities we will: Increase grant submissions from the underserved and underrepresented individuals and communities by broadening the geographical, cultural and production system expertise of the Administrative Council. Advertise for and hire an outreach assistant for underrepresented/underserved communities by the Winter 2025 meeting.Open another Strategic Agriculture Assessment Plan (SAAP) during this cooperative agreement. A second round of proposals will strengthen evaluation of this approach for generating focused submissions.The Host Institution objective to develop partnerships with leading researchers and organizations focused at the intersection of agriculture, climate, and ecological and social sustainability will be addressed through a second networking summit. The expectation is that the second BPASS will strengthen linkages formed in 2023 and through this network new multi-agency or institution efforts will begin to increase the resiliency of western agriculture.Next, acting in parallel with the draft strategic plan to improve the capacity of ag professionals, researchers, and educators to identify deep causes and solutions from final Western SARE reports the communications/outreach team will continue to publish Simply Sustainable and guidebooks. This effort is meant to generate higher awareness of Western SARE contributions to sustainable agriculture.
Project Methods
Grants ProgramsTo further the 2024 - 2025 NIFA agenda, Western SARE will coordinate seven competitive and two restricted grant programs based on the 3:1 ratio for Research and Education (Chapter 1) and Professional Development (Chapter 3), respectively. The Strategic Agriculture Assessment Plan will be managed by Chap 3. Funding recommendations will be drawn from technical panel reviews (early January 2025) and then advanced to the full Administration Council in late February/early March 2025 for further discussion and approval. Award notifications and indexing will be completed by late April 2025.The 2025 technical reviews followed the procedures described in attachment 12 of the Research and Related Other Project Information section of the application package.In the previous Cooperative Agreement, we set a goal to develop an email-based report "early warning" notification going to Project Directors and collaborators. This effort has been made and we continue to track the response rate. Initial evaluation indicates the process is reaching project leaders and could reduce the number of late reports.Call for proposals, review and scoring criteria are described in attachment 12 of the Research and Related Other Project Information section of the application package.?Calls for Grant Proposal Dissemination and Proposal Submission. To heighten the awareness of Western SARE funding opportunities in the states and Pacific Islands we will: (1) publish each round of Call for Proposals (CFPs) on the Western SARE website, (2) distribute CFPs through the Western SARE's email list of ~2100 people, (3) share CFP timelines with State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors, (4) send CFP press releases to farm and ranching publications, non-profit and other organizations, (5) advertise training webinars through these same outlets, and (6) have State Coordinators distribute CFP at conferences, workshops, meetings.Grant Review and Implementation. Reviewers are selected to achieve a balanced panel membership with production expertise, knowledge of sustainable agriculture, geographic distribution overlain by diversity of professions, ethnic, racial and gender backgrounds. Panels are tasked with evaluation of submitted research and professional development proposals. Lists of 2022-2023 Technical Review Panel members and 2023 - 2023 funded projects are included in the Attachment section of this Plan of Work.Per agreement with USDA, the MSU Office of Sponsored Programs continues to support the fiscal management of Western SARE. Invoicing and reimbursement criteria follow MSU guidelines drawn from both legislative and GSA directives. The MSU Office of Research Compliance also collaborates with the Western SARE staff on Institutional Review Board and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee reviews for applicants without institutional support.