  Dec. 29, 2016
Dear
Colleagues:
With
2016 drawing to a close, and a new year upon us, I want to take this
opportunity to congratulate you on another year of tremendous research,
education, and extension accomplishments. NIFA’s investments at your
institutions are having transformative impacts in the realm of food and
agricultural sciences, ultimately, benefiting people across our country and
beyond.
I
have had the privilege of traveling to many of your institutions during 2016,
and had the pleasure of learning first hand of the transformative work being
undertaken on your campuses.
There
are literally thousands of amazing outcomes and accomplishments across this
great nation we can celebrate. Here, I’d
like to highlight just a few stand out achievements of 2016:
-
Prairie View A&M University designed a new course in agricultural robotics
training to ensure that their students can adequately compete for the thousands
of high-skilled vacancies in the food and agricultural U.S. job market. With
support from a $276,000 NIFA grant, Prairie View created an agricultural robot
capable of carrying multiple sensors, a multi-spectral
camera, and hyperspectral radiometer for processing information from across the
electromagnetic spectrum.
-
Kansas State University led a multi-institutional team that developed a wheat
blast diagnostic protocol to be deployed through the National Plant Diagnostic
Network.
- In November, Washington State University and the Northwest Advanced Renewables
Alliance (NARA) enabled Alaska
Airlines to fly the first commercial flight powered in part by a new renewable
fuel made of wood chips and slash pile wastes. NARA is one of seven NIFA-funded
regional bioenergy Coordinated Agricultural Projects that are helping
industries reduce their carbon footprint and break our nation's dependence on
fossil fuels by helping develop our bioeconomy.
-
Michigan State University (MSU) Extension swiftly responded to the Flint,
Michigan, lead contamination water crisis. MSU specialists provided Flint
citizens educational workshops, and materials on lead poisoning. They facilitated
the distribution of 12,000 gallons of milk to the Food Bank of Eastern
Michigan. Rich in iron, vitamin C, and calcium, milk can be used to mitigate
the effects of lead absorption. MSU Extension also worked with partner
organizations to fund and distribute water filters and soil tests, and organized
a 4-H special interest club that focuses on water filtration and helping people
understand the need to drink filtered or bottled water.
- The University of New Mexico-Taos
(UNM-Taos) is cultivating the next generation of climate change researchers.
With the help of a $1 million Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Education
grant, UNM-Taos has created the Northern New Mexico Climate Change Corps (CCC)
to educate students to respond to climate-related challenges.
-
University of Nebraska researchers are using a $956,000 AFRI grant to
develop an aerial water sampling system using an unmanned aerial vehicle that
can be quickly and safely deployed to hard-to-reach locations and in response
to quickly changing scenarios.
-
University of Kentucky Extension’s “Strong Dads, Resilient Families” program
in Todd and Wolfe counties is strengthening the parenting skills of fathers, promoting
family resiliency, and helping to decrease re-offense rates. In Todd County, 48
fathers completed a program for incarcerated fathers revealed that they
have improved their communication skills with their children and have a renewed
sense of being a good father. Nearly 70 dads have completed the program.
-
University of Maryland Eastern Shore researchers are determining factors that can promote
antibiotic resistance and increased virulence of Salmonella in processed poultry. This work will be used to develop
tools to help poultry inspectors improve Salmonella
detection, helping to prevent future food recalls.
- In
partnership with the National Science Foundation, NIFA announced winners of the
first $200,000 prize competition—Innovations
in Food and Agricultural Science and Technology (I-FAST). The intent of the
I-FAST program is to help scientists and engineers broaden the impact of their
NIFA-funded research by encouraging collaboration between academia and industry
to translate fundamental agricultural innovations into the marketplace. Each of
the four winning teams—Lincoln University,
Cornell University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Houston—received $50,000
to start a business and move their innovation towards full commercialization.
In
this coming year, NIFA will continue efforts to fully implement our new ezFedGrants
system, which will result in increased efficiency and reduced costs for grant
administration, stronger financial oversight, increased transparency, and
simplified processes for grantees, self-service capabilities, a paperless
environment, and improved management and reporting of data and results.
Currently, FY 2017 Capacity Grant applicants are using ezFedGrants. In the
future, all of NIFA’s Capacity and Competitive programs will be managed through
ezFedGrants.
On
Jan. 20, 2017, our country will swear in Donald J. Trump as the 45th President.
We look forward to new opportunities with the change in administration. Meanwhile,
we await the naming of a new USDA secretary. We also await passage of a FY17 budget; the federal
government is on a Continuing Resolution (CR) through April 28, 2017. We look
forward to our continued partnerships with the vast array of our stakeholders
to spotlight the critical work all of you undertake and which contributes to
our nation’s global preeminence.
Thank
you for your strong partnership as we continue on our shared journey to “catalyze
transformative discoveries, education, and engagement to address agricultural
challenges.”
We
wish you and your institutions great success and prosperity in 2017.
Sonny Ramaswamy
NIFA Director
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and extension and seeks to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges.
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