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o Early recognition and remediation of new problems and opportunities at the grass 

 roots level 



o Relationship with the Cooperative Extension System, providing an imequaled 



mechanism for education and technology transfer for all parts of U.S. agriculture 



o Linkage with the higher education programs in land grant universities, drawing on 



the energy and imagination of graduate and post-graduate students and contributing 

 to the provision of a cutting edge education of the next generations of practitioners 

 and scientists in agriculture 



o A demonstrated track record of development and use of new knowledge and 

 technology that has been a major factor in the success of U.S. agrioJture 



o At least a three-fold leveraging of USDA funds with state and other funds 



o An existing effective and functional strategic planning process that builds from the 

 grass roots and identifies and prioritizes the national research agenda and results in 

 redirection of existing and application of new resources to changing needs 



STRATEGIC PLANNING, PRIORITY SETTING, AND RESPONSE TO CHANGING 

 NEEDS: 



The State Agricultural Experiment Stations and the Cooperative State Research Service 

 have made functional use of national level strategic plaiming since 1984 as a means of 

 developing budget proposals and redirecting resources. The Experiment Station Committee 

 on Organization and Policy, which represents the SAESs at the national level, along with 

 its Federal partner, develop a major revision of their strategic research plan every four 

 years. In intervening years, the plan is revised and updated as necessary to meet changing 

 needs and to provide input to the USDA Joint Council on Food and Agricultural Sciences. 

 Each year, it is sent to every Experiment Station Director to rank the initiatives in priority 

 order of importance, based on perceptions of need and opportunity. 



The product of ESCOP-CSRS planning is a broadly stated document that provides vision 

 and mission statements for the SAESs, a brief background for perspective and an array of 

 highest priority initiatives, with research objectives and resources needed to achieve the 

 goals. It includes a state and regional consensus on relative priorities based on a very broad 

 input from the users of the product of SAES research. 



ESCOP participates in the development and advocacy of the budget proposal for the Board 

 on Agriculture of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges 

 (NASULGC). ESCOP uses the Strategic Research Plan as the principle guideline in 

 developing recommendations for the annual budget recommendation, maintaining close 

 communication at the early stages of development with CSRS. NASULGC makes a 



