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After the draft has been given tentative endorsement by ESCOP and CSRS, the initiatives 

 are sent to every Experiment Station Director who is asked to rank the initiatives in priority 

 order of importance, based on perceptions of need and opportunity. This grass roots 

 evaluation of priorities is repeated on an annual basis. There is an excellent consensus 

 among regions on the most important initiatives. Likewise, there is good agreement on the 

 initiatives of lower (but important) priority. The mid-range of average priorities has less 

 regional consensus, reflecting the diversity and site specificity of much of what is done in 

 agricultural research. 



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. 



The ESCOP-CSRS plan is one of the inputs to the National Agricultural Research 

 Committee (NARC), which is part of the Joint Council on Food and Agricultural Sciences. 

 This Council, mandated by the 1977 and succeeding Farm Bills, also receives input from 

 similar committees dealing with Extension, Higher Education, and International Programs. 

 The NARC has membership from the SAESs , Federal agencies conducting agricultural and 

 forestry research, non-land grant universities involved in agricultural research, the Colleges 

 of Forestry, Veterinary Medicine, and Home Economics, and the research directors of the 

 1890 universities. The NARC provides to the Joint Council annual rank-ordered 

 recommendations for research priorities, a semi-annual input for the update of the Joint 

 Council's strategic plan, and annual reports on research accomplishments. The Joint 

 Council meets at least annually with the Users Advisory Board, also mandated by the Farm 

 Bill. As the name implies, this Board is comprised of representatives of the user community 

 who also make recommendations on the budget for science and education to both the 

 Secretary and the Congress. The product of the Joint Council is presented to the Secretary 

 of Agriculture and, in practice, has been a significant input to the budget development 

 process for Science and Education in USDA. 



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 principal guideline in 

 developing recommendations for the annual budget recommendation, maintaining close 

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

 proposal to the USDA for the Science and Education budget in the summer before 

 appropriations are made. ESCOP, along with NASULGC counterparts, evaluate the 

 President's budget in early spring and then take their recommendations to the Congress. 



The SAESs are not tightly organized as is the case with federal agencies conducting research 

 and development. They represent a coordinated network of participating state agencies 

 which are part of land grant universities. Their strength lies in the distributed decision 



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