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You are here: Home / Newsroom / Newsletters / 2007 CSREES Updates / CSREES Update - September 5, 2007

CSREES Update - September 5, 2007

CSREES Update, from the Office of the Administrator, is a biweekly newsletter for research, education, and extension partners at land-grant universities and other cooperating institutions.

CSREES

  • Rozum USDS Embassy Science Fellow
  • Duriancik Leaves CSREES for NRCS
  • CSREES News
  • CSREES Lists Open Requests for Grant Applications

USDA

  • U.S. Agricultural Exports Expected to Reach Record Levels

Partners

  • New UMass CES Director
  • UMass Names NRE Dean/AES Director
  • eXtension Launches Entrepreneurship Site
  • WRDC Releases Report on Rural Entrepreneurship in the West
  • WRDC Offers Training on Community-Powered Entrepreneurism

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Mary Ann Rozum, CSREES national program leader for the Natural Resources and Environment Unit, is serving in the U.S. Department of State (USDS) Embassy Science Fellowship program in Croatia, from September 2-October 29. The program provides expertise, advice, and assistance with science and technology-related issues to the host country, and engages other federal agencies in international science issues. She is based in Split, Croatia, at the Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation to assist with grant writing in research, education, and extension programs with the European Union, nonprofits, and other organizations. Rozum, in return, will learn more about the international agricultural grant process, how our domestic programs compare, and where opportunities to collaborate may exist. Other CSREES staff who participated in this program include Ann Marie Thro, Richard Hegg, and Kitty Cardwell.

Lisa Duriancik, who worked as a program specialist for CSREES Natural Resources and Environment in water resources, air quality, conservation, and other natural resource programs, has joined USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in its Resources Inventory and Assessment Division. She accepted a leadership position as project coordinator for the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), a major USDA-led interagency project to quantify the effects of conservation practices. She was instrumental in CSREES natural resources management and leadership and internal administrative procedures, including efforts to transition to eGrants during her 5 years with CSREES. You can reach her at Lisa.Duriancik@wdc.usda.gov.

 

 

Funding Opportunity

Closing Date

Contact

Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) - Various topic areas See individual grant program See individual grant program

 

CSREES advertises all of its funding opportunities through "Find Grant Opportunities" on the Grants.gov Web site. This site is searchable and contains summary information on all federal funding opportunities with links to the full announcements. Users can search announcements by topic, funding agency, and date, as well as subscribe to an e-mail notification service based on these parameters.

 

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced August 31 a record $79 billion forecast in FY 2007 agricultural exports. For FY 2008, USDA forecasts exports to reach $83.5 billion with growth and new sales across all major agricultural product groups. The forecasts eclipse the old record of $68.6 billion set last year. "These export numbers, once again, demonstrate that U.S. agricultural products are in high demand around the world," said Johanns. "They also reflect tight world markets for grains and oilseeds. U.S. farmers are hard at work to supply these markets, both at home and abroad. In short, the world wants what we produce and at USDA we will continue to work aggressively to maintain and open markets for our farmers and ranchers." Visit the USDA Newsroom to read U.S. Agricultural Exports Expected to Reach Record Levels full release.

Nancy Garrabrants is the new director of Cooperative Extension for the University of Massachusetts (UMass), effective August 20. Garrabrants served as director and assistant dean for UMass-Amherst's Stockbridge School from 1998 to 2006. She served as lecturer in the Plant, Soils, and Insect Sciences Department of the College of Natural Resources, and has been with University of Massachusetts-Amherst since 1980. She worked with varied constituencies across the Commonwealth, including the Massachusetts Center for Career and Technical Education Steering committee, the Northeast Service Providers Consortium, the Massachusetts Flower Growers Association, and the American Institute of Floral Designers. In addition, she taught horticulture at the State University of New York at Cobleskill. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and earned her Master's degree in Plant and Soil Sciences in 1987. Garrabrants succeeds Robert Schrader, who served as interim director for the past 3 years and was reassigned as associate director of Cooperative Extension, effective August 20.

Steve Goodwin is the new dean of the College of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) and director of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station (AES). A professor in the Department of Microbiology at UMass-Amherst, Goodwin has also served as associate dean of NRE and associate director of the Massachusetts AES since 2002. He has been a member of the faculty since 1986. Goodwin's research focused on microbial synthesis and degradation of biopolymers; microbial ecology; anaerobic digestion and bioremediation; microbiology and redox chemistry in groundwater and the microbiology of solid waste and compost. He is active in exploring the use of teaching technologies in large classrooms. He chairs the Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors and served on the executive Northeast Regional Aquaculture Center committee from 2003 to 2005. Goodwin holds a B.A. in zoology from the University of Maine, an M.S. in environmental science from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin.

eXtension announced the "soft" launch of its fifth Community of Practice Web site, Entrepreneurs and Their Communities. This Web site serves as an additional resource that local business owners can depend upon for unbiased information on a variety of business-related topics. Like all other Web sites launched as part of eXtension, the Entrepreneurs and Their Communities site is populated with various frequently asked questions (FAQs) responding to the most common set of questions that users are likely to ask. It also offers users the opportunity to submit questions not addressed in the FAQ system, inquiries that will be answered by land-grant university personnel with expertise in these specific topical areas.

Bo Beaulieu, director of the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University, is the team coordinator of 20 extension educators and rural development partners drawn from all parts of the United States. Mary Peabody, University of Vermont extension specialist, is the team co-leader.

The Western Rural Development Center (WRDC) recently published Sounding Off About Rural Entrepreneurship in the West. The report is a summary of the Rural Entrepreneurship Listening Sessions, which were held in 11 states throughout the west between 2005 and 2007. More than 275 people, including community members, rural entrepreneurs, farmers and ranchers, and tribal representatives, attended the listening sessions. Participants offered many suggestions about what was working and what needed to be improved or developed to support rural entrepreneurship in their communities. To learn more about the participants' recommendations, view the full report on the WRDC Web site. Contact Sally Maggard, CSREES national program leader in the Economic and Community Systems Unit, or John C. Allen, director, Western Rural Development Center, for more information about the listening sessions.

 

The Western Rural Development Center (WRDC) in partnership with the Nevada Commission on Economic Development and the University of Nevada-Reno, will present a 1-day introductory training program on the WRDC's Western EDGE in Fallon, NV, September 13, 2007. This free training is designed to introduce the Western EDGE Community-Powered Entrepreneurism training to community leaders, community development practitioners, small business owners, and extension professionals. Marilyn Schlake and Joy Marshall, producers of the Nebraska EDGE program, will be the trainers and Jim Goodwin, senior program officer for the WRDC, will facilitate the program. For details contact the WRDC.

For a plain text copy of this newsletter, please contact Judy Rude. CSREES UPDATE is published biweekly. The next regular issue is planned for September 19. Submit news items to newsletter@csrees.usda.gov by September 12, 2007.

Editor: Judy Rude, Public Affairs Specialist, CSREES Communications Staff. If you have questions about Update, please contact her at jrude@csrees.usda.gov.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, please send an e-mail message to jrude@csrees.usda.gov. In the body of the message, type: subscribe csrees-update OR unsubscribe csrees-update.

Back issues of CSREES UPDATE are available on the CSREES Web site.

Colien Hefferan, Administrator

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 Questions? Comments? Last Updated: 03/18/2009