IFT co-chairs roundtable on food and farming R&D

It also aims foster productive R&D collaborations by identifying what characteristics make them work successfully.

William Fisher, IFT vice president and co-chair of the roundtable commented: “I think this is a golden opportunity to showcase past R&D collaborations and to further promote the value of R&D and its future impacts on society.”​

This first-ever R&D roundtable, to be held on March 15, 2011 in Washington, DC, will be co-chaired by the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS).

Federal agencies​

Other leading agricultural organizations and federal agencies helping to organize the event include Farm Foundation NPF, Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation, and the Agronomy, Crop, and Soil Science Societies in collaboration with Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, and National Agricultural Research, Education, Extension, and Economics Advisory Board, USDA.

In order to celebrate examples of well-planned and executed research and development,

academic and industry researchers have been asked to supply exemplary cases studies on the following topics:

• Nutrition such as childhood obesity, healthy eating, school meals and education
• Food including safety and security
• Production including competiveness, markets, crops, livestock, energy, climate change, sustainability and agroforestry
• Natural resources encompassing soil, water, air, wildlife, fish, plants, pollinators, forests and rangelands
• Rural-urban linkages such as urban agriculture, community supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, conservation education.

Studies should involve one or more USDA agencies and preferably one or more other federal agencies. Results of the studies should show an impact and that will benefit a wide spectrum of producers, landowners, managers, educators, communities and citizens.

Productive collaborations​

According to a statement on FASS’s website: “The R&D roundtable will integrate the presentations of exemplary case studies with presentations by science policy officials to assemble information to be used to (1) raise the profile of agriculture, food, and natural resources related R&D throughout the federal government and beyond and (2) highlight the characteristics of highly productive collaborations in order to enhance the collaboration between performers of R&D whether they be associated with universities, federal agencies, or other entities​.”

Case study details should be submitted before December 17th 2010.

A programme for the roundtable will be announced in January, 2011.

A summary of the roundtable and the proceedings will be published online and in print after the event.