Posts Tagged: Strategic Initiatives

Strategic Initiative leaders encourage you to attend the 2013 ANR Statewide Conference

Dear Colleagues,

As the Strategic Initiative leaders, we encourage you to attend the 2013 ANR Statewide Conference, which serves as the Initiative meetings for this year. We're excited about this opportunity to convene all of the Initiatives and promote cross-initiative discussions and partnerships. 

Join your colleagues for three days of lively discussions about ANR’s role in identifying and addressing challenges in agriculture and in natural and human resources with an eye to how our Strategic Vision, through the Initiatives, shapes this important work. Take a look at the science sessions, which have been updated on the agenda.

Many program teams and workgroups will be meeting during the conference as well. Please contact the Program Support Unit soon if you wish to reserve space during the conference for your group to meet.

If you have not already signed up, registration remains open at 2013 ANR Statewide Conference. The special room rate at the conference hotel expires this Friday, March 8, so don't delay in making your reservations. 

We hope to see you in Ontario!

Sincerely,

Doug Parker
Chair, Strategic Initiative Leaders

 

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Register for the Water Strategic Initiative Conference

Registration is now open for the UC ANR Water Strategic Initiative Conference and program team meetings being held Nov. 14-15 at the Activities and Recreation Center at UC Davis.

The theme of the conference is “Water: Opportunities and Challenges.”  At the conference, participants will share information about water-related research and will be encouraged to look for opportunities for collaboration.

The water panel will also seek input on the Draft Strategic Initiative on Water Plan, which will be posted at http://ucanr.edu/sites/water at least two weeks prior to the conference.

There will be a panel discussion about water competition in the Bay Delta and for agricultural and urban uses. Speakers will also discuss water issues associated with developed lands, irrigated lands and resource lands.

For more information or to register for the Water Strategic Initiative Conference, visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/water/Agenda. 

Program teams will meet Nov. 14 from 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Additional workgroup and program team meetings may be held on Nov. 13. Workgroup chairs and program team leaders may reserve space by completing a brief survey.  For further information, contact ANRProgramSupport@ucdavis.edu, (530) 752-1581 or (530)752-2442.

 

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

 

ANR competitive grants fund 16 projects

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that ANR’s 2012 competitive grants program will fund 16 projects, for a total of approximately $5 million over 5 years. The awards range in value from $46,226 to nearly $600,000. Last year we funded 19 projects with $4.46 million over 5 years.

A full list of the funded projects, collaborators, funding amounts and funding source are posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/anrstaff/Divisionwide_Programs/2012grants.

Key criteria

The purpose of this grants program, outlined in the request for proposals, is to address five strategic initiatives: Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases; Healthy Families and Communities; Sustainable Food Systems; Sustainable Natural Ecosystems and Water Quality, Quantity and Security.

Three key criteria were considered in evaluating full proposals: technical merit, feasibility of achieving objectives in the specified time frame, and clear indications that the work was likely to produce policy-relevant impacts. These attributes are critical to the ANR strategy of demonstrating relevance to key state issues and attracting new funding support.

Grant review process

The five strategic initiative panels reviewed 168 letters of intent for strong, substantive connections to initiative priorities, then invited authors of 79 letters of intent to submit full proposals. We received 77 full proposals from which the 16 projects were selected for funding. 

After each proposal received at least two technical reviews by academics who had no conflict of interest with the proposal, the strategic initiatives leaders ranked the proposals and recommended a consensus slate of highly ranked proposals to Program Council. Program Council discussed each of the recommended proposals in detail, and sent the full set of recommended proposals with comments to ANR leadership for final review and selection.

With ANR’s Strategic Vision as our guide, we focus our resources where there is an opportunity to demonstrate impact, inform public policymaking and attract new resources to support all elements of ANR. In doing so, we strive to achieve the greatest benefit for Californians with the investment. Please join me in congratulating this year’s recipients of ANR competitive grants.

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President, Agriculture and Natural Resources

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Register for September program team meetings

Registration is now open for the Sept. 18-19 program team meetings being held at the Activities and Recreation Center at UC Davis.

Four program teams will be meeting thus far: Positive Youth Development, Youth Science Literacy, Healthy Behaviors for Preventing Childhood Obesity, and California Communities.

The program will feature the launch of a new Healthy Youth, Healthy Environment speaker series, with a keynote address by Louise Chawla, professor in the Department of Planning and Urban Design at the University of Colorado.

Participants will also hear research updates and plan ongoing program team activities.

For more information or to register, visit the Program Team website http://ucanr.edu/sites/programteams/Sept_18-20_Meeting.

View or leave comments for the VP Cabinet.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Hold the date: ANR statewide conference set for April 9–11, 2013

An ANR statewide conference for academics and staff has been scheduled for April 9–11, 2013, at the DoubleTree Hotel near the Ontario Airport in Southern California. Please hold these dates on your calendar.

This all-staff conference will incorporate all of the strategic initiative conferences, in place of individual SI conferences, for 2013. There will be opportunities for the strategic initiatives, program teams and workgroups to meet to share information, coordinate efforts and plan activities. The conference will also include programmatic and administrative discussions and a variety of training sessions.

Details about the ANR statewide conference, its agenda, registration and lodging will follow in future announcements and be posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/statewideconference2013.

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

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