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Suggested Citation:"2 The Proposal." National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1397.
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Suggested Citation:"2 The Proposal." National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1397.
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Suggested Citation:"2 The Proposal." National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1397.
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Page 12
Suggested Citation:"2 The Proposal." National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1397.
×
Page 13
Suggested Citation:"2 The Proposal." National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1397.
×
Page 14
Suggested Citation:"2 The Proposal." National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1397.
×
Page 15
Suggested Citation:"2 The Proposal." National Research Council. 1989. Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1397.
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Page 16

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

The Proposal The agricultural and food system in the United States undoubtedly has proved its capacity for provid- ing food and forestry products in large quantities and at low prices, for serving as the base for almost 20 percent of the nation's economy, and for capitalizing on research and development (R&D) to attain excep- tional levels of productivity. Even as this level of per- formance continues, however, agriculture and the associated food-related industries- is facing three major challenges: 1. Competitiveness and economic performance, both nationally and globally: U.S . agriculture needs to be able to sustain itself as a major global leader, thus contributing to national economic strength and deficit reduction. 2. Human health and well-being: Convenient and nutritious food needs to be available to individuals with a variety of dietary patterns, thus contributing comprehensively to disease reduction and good health. 3 . Natural resources stewardship: Environmental quality needs to be enhanced and the high quality of U.S . naturalresources needs to tee sustained et reduced costs to producers and the public. Meeting these challenges will require an effective national strategy, implemented with ingenuity and innovation. It will also require major advances in science and technology on a scale and of a scope not seen previously. These science and technology ad- vances are needed throughout the entire agricultural, food, and environmental system (see the box "Defin- ing Agriculture" for a definition of and perspective on this system). Achieving these advances will require a major additional investment in R&D and the securing 10 of as much talent as possible for the agricultural, food, and environmental research system. This proposal calls for an investment in research for the agricultural, food, and environmental system. The recommendations of this proposal will, when implemented, be a major new step for ensuring that sufficient new knowledge is generated to successfully address both the continuing national need for high- performance productivity and the three challenges identified above. The recommendations and the specific actions these challenges call for are set forth in this chapter; the rationale for them is presented in Chapters 3 through 5. Chapter 6 discusses the institutional and administrative issues that will arise upon implementa- tion of the recommendations. This proposal would stimulate the broad array of the nation's science and technology expertise to con- duct fundamental research on issues of national need and to use new ways of deriving innovative applica- tions from the knowledge thatis gained. The proposal does not nor can any single proposal by itself address all the important needs of the agricultural, food, and environmental research system. For ex- ample, the proposal is not intended to provide a significant new source of funds for state-specific applications of technology or for regional technology transfer and educational activities. Those and other needs will continue to be met principally by activities of the state agricultural experiment stations, the Agri- cultural Research Service, the Cooperative Extension Service, and other components of the agricultural research, extension, and educational systems. The goal of this proposal is to create fundamental new knowledge and tools that will help the entire agricul- tural, food, and environmental research system meet its central responsibilities to the nation.

THE PROPOSAL 11 Defining Agriculture Agriculture, as the Board on Agriculture defines it, encompasses the entirety of the system that grows, processes, and provides food and fiber for the nation. Agriculture also includes the management of natural resources such as surface water and groundwater, forests and other lands for commercial or recreational uses, and wildlife; the social, physical, and biological environments; and the public policy issues that relate to the overall system. All the activities, practices, and processes of the public and private sectors involved in agriculture and forestry are contained within the system. In this report, the term agriculture, food, and the environment is used to communicate the full meaning of agriculture in this broad sense. The term agricultural, food, and environmental research is used to designate all of the research relevant to the entire system. That research is the focus of this proposal. AN EXPANDED PUBLIC INVESTMENT Research support for agriculture, food, and the environment should be increased by $500 million annually. This increase should support competitive grants ad- rrunistered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Competitive Research Grants Office. Tight budgets havelimited the U.S. government's capacity to respond to national needs in the agricul- tural, food, and environmental research system. The potential to respond is available throughout the na- tion'sresearch system: in stateland-grant universities and agricultural experiment stations; in private uni- versities and not-for-profit institutions; in federal sci- ence and mission-oriented agencies outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); in USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Cooperative State Research Service, Extension Service, Economic Research Service, and U.S. Forest Service; and in other federal agencies. The most effective way to enlist science and technology to more effectively address the agricul- tural, food, and environmental needs of the nation is with a competitive grants program that is open to all scientists and scholars. Under a competitive grants program, limited funds can be allocated to those institutions and individuals who, in the judgment of their peers, have come forward with the best ideas and who have the capability for advancing science and addressing the issues. As discussed in later chapters (see especially Chapter 3), current funding for com- petitive grants for agricultural, food, and environ mental research is far too low to meet major national needs, cover all program areas, and advance new developments in science. This proposal calls for an overall increase in funding for agricultural, food, and environmental research, but not for a redirection or reallocation of the funds now being used to support research and educa- tion programs. New funding is called for because, although attracting the much-needed new talent to this area of research will provide substantial benefits lo the nation, it will not by itself respond to major national needs. Advances in knowledge need to be comple- mented by research, education, and delivery mecha- nisms that will enable farmers, consumers, managers, and administrators to develop, adopt, and use the new knowledge and technology in their day-to-day activi- ties. The only way to give full and timely application to the scientific and engineering progress that will be made through the competitive grants program is by maintaining and strengthening the existing research and education programs, including formula-funded programs. The current system) for putting research results into practice is effective, especially in light of the many complexities of adaptation that arise from re- gional differences.2 With the demands on the system increasing while resources remain level, however, the system is under stress. Weakening it by diverting federal formula or ARS funds to other programs- even to an expanded competitive grants program- makes little sense; and politically, the attempt to do so would be destructive. The state and federal funds supporting the current system of technology develop- ment and transfer should be continued. Thus, new funds not reallocated funds-are needed for the expanded competitive grants program proposed here.

12 PROGRAM AREAS AND SCIENTIFIC SCOPE The expanded competitive grants pro- gram should encompass all the science and technology that are relevant to agri- culture, food, and the environment. For tius to be done, six program areas should be established: (1J plant systems; (2) animal systems; (3J nutrition, food qual- ity, and health; (4) natural resources and the environment; (5) engineering, prod- ucts, and processes; and (6) markets, trade, and policy. The boundaries of agriculture now far transcend the activities of planting and harvesting crops and raising livestock. Agriculture includes all dimensions of the agricultural, food, and environmental system. Activities in agriculture and forestry can have a major influence on environmental quality,~the biodiversity and stability of ecosystems, and water quality. These activities can also have long-term effects on global changes, such as those involving the greenhouse ef- fect on climate, ultraviolet radiation, and acidic depo sltlon. Accordingly, the science and technology related to the agricultural, food, and environmental system now extend beyond plant and animal science to in- clude, for example, ecology and environmental stud- ies; engineering, management, and information sys- tems; economics, sociology, andcommunity develop- ment; biomedicine and human nutrition; and biotech- nology, food technology and processing, and decom- position of wastes. The existing USDA competitive grants program, which was established in 1978, has limited its grant awards to only three areas: (1) plant science, which includes molecular biology, genetics, plant physiol- ogy, and plant-pest and environmental stress interac- tions; (2) animal science, with a grant program that was introduced in fiscal year (FY) 1985 and is sched- uled for a substantial increase in funding in the Presi- dent's proposed FY 1990 budget;3 and (3) human nu- trition, with a few important areas of research, particu- larly nutrient availability, receiving modest support in some program years. There was also a short-lived and severely underfunded forestry grants program that, among other things, stimulated research with the po- tential to hasten progress in the genetic improvement of tree varieties for commercial forest plantings.4 The expanded competitive grants program should cover the entire agricultural, food, and environmental WRESTING IN RESEARCH system and should therefore support work not only in the three areas currently receiving support but in all six program areas listed above. Similarly, the program should embrace all necessary science and technology disciplines needed for each of the six program areas. For example, engineering and economics are both necessary when new cropping systems and new prod- ucts are considered; veterinary medicine, immunol- ogy, and epidemiology are integral to animal systems; the physics and chemistry involved in transport phe- nomena in porous media, as well as in soil science, are directly relevant to water quality, sustainable agricul- tural systems, and waste management; and operations research, applied mathematics, computer and infor- mation sciences, engineering systems, and robotics are relevant to environmental management and post- harvest processing. Furthermore, many of the prob- lems are multifaceted and are properly addressed in integrated multidisciplinary studies (as proposed be- low). By embracing all of the program areas and open- ing the competitive grants program to scientists and scholars in all relevant disciplines, the expanded competitive grants program will, for the first time, support the range of science relevant to agriculture and be available to the broad community of scientific researchers. The six program areas proposed here cover not only the current program areas of the Competitive Research Grants Office but also the program priorities of the Joint Council for Food and Agricultural Sci- ences and the strategic plan of the ARS (see Chapter 5~. Research topics within the six proposed areas would include (but are not limited to) the following: 1. Plant Systerns:5 Plant gene expression and genetic diversity; the genetic and biochemical basis of important crop plant traits and advanced plant breed- ing systems; crop plant use of energy and nutrients; plant-pest interactions and biocontrol systems; crop plant response to environmental stresses; the econom- ics of cropping systems and practices; the biological basis of forest and range productivity; new food and industrial uses of plant products. 2. Animal Systems: Cellular and molecular basis of reproduction, growth, lactation, and disease; nutri- tional attributes of animal products; nutritional and environmental effects on livestock production sys- tems; economics of animal production systems, nutri- ent sources, and animal health care practices; wildlife and fisheries management; identification of the genes

THE PROPOSAL responsible for improved production traits or resis- tance to disease. 3. Nutrition, Food Quality, and Health: Chemi- cal residues (natural and man-made), microbial con- taminants, and foodborne illnesses; methods of iden- tifying population subgroups that are genetically pre- disposed to diet-related diseases; links between diet and health; bioavailability of nutrients; dietary needs and sensitivities of specific subgroups of the popula- tion; methods of achieving quality control in food processing; improved packaging, preservation, trans- portation, and preparation of foods. 4. Natural Resources and the Environment: Fundamental structures and functions of ecosystems; biological basis of sustainable production systems; methods of minimizing the loss of soil resources and the negative environmental effects of agricultural and forestry practices; maintenance of biodiversity in forests and croplands; options to improve the energy and water use efficiencies of crop and forest produc- tion systems; global climatic effects on agriculture and forestry; development of a land stewardship and an environmental ethic within U.S. society. 5. Engineering, Products, ar~lProcesses: Novel uses of traditional crops, animals, forest trees, by- products, and natural resources; systems of planting, harvesting, processing, and marketing new crops; more cost-effective harvesting, manufacturing, and production and quality control procedures using sen- sors, biotechnological probes, robotics, expert sys- tems, and diagnostic tools; new hazard and risk assess- ment and mitigation procedures; options to improve the energy efficiencies of farming and industrial ac- tivities and to produce energy from renewable bio- mass derived from agricultural and forestry activities; recycling of municipal and food processing wastes. 6. Markets, Trade, and Policy: Interactions of technology, policy, and economics; advanced sys- tems and tools to manage investments and make decisions on choices and applications of technology; optimal strategies for entering new overseas markets; methods of adopting new technologies and agricul- tural systems; new approaches to economic develop- ment in rural areas of the United States and in devel- oping countries. TYPES OF GRANTS In each of the six program areas, four types of competitive grants should be available: (1J principal investigator grants, (2)fundamentaI multidisciplinary 13 team grants, (3) ~ussion-linked multidis- ciplinary team grants, and (4J research- strengthening grants. A crucial aspect of a competitive grants program is the types of grants it makes available. In the current USDA program, grants for principal investigators predominate. The expanded program would offer four types of grants, giving scientists a range of options for pursuing critical areas of fundamental research, problem-solving or mission-oriented re- search, and technology development and adaptation. Two of the four types of grants principal inves- tigator grants and fundamental multidisciplinary team grants- are intended to advance science and can be thought of as science-driven. They will support indi- viduals and teams carrying out fundamental research relevant to agriculture, food, and the environment. The other two types of grants mission-linked mul- tidisciplinary team grants and research-strengthening grants-are more applied or problem-driven. The four grant types are defined as follows: 1. Principal investigator grants will be awarded to individual scientists or to two or more principal investigators working collaboratively as co-principal investigators within the same discipline or in closely related disciplines. Grants for principal investigators are the foundation of the highly successful competi- tive grants programs in the United States and are the major way to attract talented scientists to research areas. Because oftheinherently individualistic way in which research scientists work and the extraordinary success of comparable competitive grants programs, the principal investigator grant is to be the primary type of grant awarded. 2. Fundamental multidisciplinary team grants will support basic, i.e., fundamental, research conducted by a team of collaborating scientists from two or more distinct science or engineering disciplines integrated into a single plan of study. The research will focus on answering importantbasic scientific questions that are involved in understanding a biological phenomenon, such as disease resistance, or that are applicable to phenomena central to an overall agricultural, food, and environmental system, such as the biogeochemi- cal principles of agricultural ecosystems. 3. Mission-linked multidisciplinary team grants will also support multidisciplinary work. The work will be conducted on major science and engineering questions of national import, basic to understanding the phenomena being studied, and will be linked to

14 more applied problems. Examples of mission-linked problems are agricultural production and harvesting systems, including issues of soil and water sustaina- bility; food processing and the improvement of health through dietary modifications; and diversification of the economic base in rural areas by developing value- added industries, including new crops, new uses for crops, and recreational opportunities. A prerequisite for this type of grant will be links extending from basic research to applied research and technology develop- ment and transfer, forming a continuum of results and applications. Moreover, an important component of the proposal should be linkage to a state agricultural experiment station, a cooperative extension program, industry, or an ARS or other government laboratory, which should include matching grants or in-kind support. 4. Research-strengthening grants, too, will be mission-linked. Their purpose is to increase the re- search capacity of institutions, departments, and pro- grams as well as that of individuals. They will address the need for a more competitive state and regional research infrastructure and the need for more qualified research scientists. Institutions that are both focused and committed but that lack a sufficient research capacity may receive program grants to develop re- search capabilities in areas of special need. Predoc- toral students and postdoctoral research associates in program areas that need human resources will receive fellowships from institutions, enabling them to up- grade their ability to perform research related to agri- cultural, food, and environmental needs. However, under this expandedcompetitive "rants program, these fellowships will not be the sole, and may not even be the major, source of support for higher education: Most individual and multidisciplinary competitive grants should routinely include funds to support gradu- ate students and research fellows, and the USDA fellowship program should also be continued and expanded. Research-s~engthening grants should notbe made or used for conswuciion, renovation, or other major capital expenditures. Equipment to help improve the use of existing expertise and facilities would be an appropriate use of monies from these grants. The expanded USDA competitive grants pro- grarn should allow applicants to seek any one of the four grant types in each of the six major program areas. Goals for the distribution of funding by type of grant (see Chapter 3) should apply to the total program, not to each of the six program areas separately. INVESTING IN RESEARCH ATTENTION TO MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH The expanded competitive grants pro- gram should put major emphasis on sup- porting both fundamental and mission- linked multidisciplinary research teams. Up to 50 percent of the funding awarded for USDA's competitive grants should support multidisciplinary research. Fundamental research done by an individual sci- entist within one discipline or by a small group of scientists in closely related disciplines has always been, and will remain, a cornerstone of scientific advancement.6 However, many fundamental scien- tific and technological questions in food and agricul- ture-and certainly the more applied problems are multifaceted. Making steady progress to resolve these questions and problems requires that several scientific disciplines be integrated and managed to ensure col- laboration and synergy. Thus, it is appropriate and necessary to establish multidisciplinary grants and award a significant portion up to 50 percent-of the funding for the program through fundamental mul- tidisciplinary team grants and mission-linked mul . . . . t~d~sc~pl~nary team grants. An expanded competitive grants program that targets funding and attention to multidisciplinary grants will encourage and stimulate research on problems that require the combined skills from several disci- plines. This will help focus attention on issues that cross several disciplines. The emphasis on multidis- ciplinary research approaches may also modify some of the procedures and criteria for evaluating proposals and awarding grants. For example, the makeup of peer review panels can be modified or augmented so that people experienced in managing and working on multidisciplinary teams will be evaluating multidisci- plinary grant proposals. STRENGTHEN INSTITUTIONS AND HU1VIAN RESOURCES Research-strengthening grants to insti- tutions and individuals should be a key component of an expanded competitive grants program. Academic institutions are not equally capable of pursuing research. Yet, an academic institution needs research strength if it is to participate in the national

THE PROPOSAL scientific agenda, as it surely should. Small to mid- sized academic institutions in rural areas warrant special consideration and investment through a pro- gram of research-strengthening grants. The expanded competitive grants program can lessen the unevenness in the research capability among U.S. academic institutions by strategically investing in the infrastructure and by attracting more talented young scientists and engineers to pursue careers in the agricultural, food, and environmental sciences. Re- search-strengthening grants are intended to improve the research capability at academic institutions and in departments that aspire to, but have not attained, nationally recognized R&D capability. They are also intended to increase the training and experiences available to pre- and postdoctoral fellows in agricul- tural, food, and environmental research. These research-strengthening institutional grants are conceived of as being comparable in purpose and value to those offered through the National Science Foundation's (NSF' s)ExperimentalProgram to Stimu- late Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program, and they could be managed like the EPSCoR grants or like those offered through the training grant programs of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The fellowships are meant to complement exist- ing USDA fellowship programs, which should be continued. Areas emphasized for fellowships should be those in which it is necessary to ensure future scientific talent and those in which fields of knowl- edge are rapidly expanding. A primary goal of the fellowship programs should be to attract and retain top-quality scientific talent for the agricultural, food, and environmental research system. Providing opportunities within the agricultural, food, and environmental research system for women, minorities, and disabled individuals must be a goal for all programs, and certainly for the expanded grants program proposed here. Research-strengthening grants should be a major means to this end. If as much as 10 percent of competitive grants program funding is allocated to research-strengthen- ing grants, the program will significantly broaden the nation's scientific base by providing scientific capa- bilities that will likely pay significant dividends. SIZE AND DURATION OF SUPPORT The size and duration of USDA competi- tive grant awards should be substantially increased. The average size of a grant should be at least $100,000 per year per 15 principal investigator; the duration of a grant should be at least 3 years and as many as 5 years. The size and duration of the awards a program offers are critical to its ability to attract top-quality scientific end engineering talent. Atpresent, too many leading scientists and institutions pass up the opportu- nity to compete for the limited, short-term funding available from the USDA competitive grants pro- gram. Those who do secure funding must cope with inadequate budgets and little assurance of continued support. To rectify this situation, the USDA competitive grants program should award grants that enable effec- tive conduct of research and that are more nearly comparable in size and duration to the grants awarded by NSF and NIH theinstitutions with the largess end most successful grants programs in the United States. This change alone will do much to attract more top- quality and new scientific talent into the agricultural, food, and environmental system and to further stimu- late and reinforce the talent already in the system. Ideally, under an overall program of $550 mil- lion-$50 million from the current program, $500 million from the proposed increase-$250 million in grants averaging about $100,000 per year and lasting an average of 3 years would be allocated to principal investigators; $150 million in grants lasting an aver- age of 4 years would be allocated to fundamental multidisciplinary teams; $100 million lasting an aver- age of 4 years would be allocated to mission-linked multidisciplinary teams; and $50 million would be allocated to recipients of research-strengthening grants (to institutions for programs and to individuals for fellowships). NOTES 1. The currentsystem includes state, federal, and private scientists such as state agricultural experiment station scientists, cooperative extension service spe- cialists and advisers, ARS scientists, and their counter- parts in the private sector. The publicly funded com- ponents are supported by a mixture of state appropria- tions, federal formula funds to the states, the research budget of ARS, and funding from commodity groups and industry. 2. Examples of applications distinct to particular regions are the breeding of salt-tolerant cultivars for western soils with a high salt content; the development of soil erosion control systems that are effective in

16 regions experiencing potentially high rates of both wind and water erosion; and the identification of pest and plant disease control practices that are effective, safe, and profitable in regions with diverse indigenous pests, soils, and climates. 3. The $8.0 million increase proposed in FY 1990 in animal science competitive grants funding results in large part from the proposed inclusion under the competitive grants program of the Section 1433 program, which distributed about $5.0 million annu- ally from 1984 to 1988. Congressional response to the proposal to transfer the funds is uncertain. 4. It shouldbe noted thatcurrentplantand animal . science competitive grants programs cover only por- tions of the proposed plant and animal systems pro- gram areas (for example, veterinary medical issues are not now included) and that the current biotechnology program applies to five of the six proposed program areas but only partially and partially to the sixth proposed program area (markets, trade, and policy) (see Chapter 5 for a discussion). WRESTING IN RESEARCH 5. The term systems as used here has two mean- ings: (1) The crop plant or animal of interest is part of a larger biological system that includes relationships with other plants, animals, insects, or microbes- relationships that can be either beneficial or harmful. (2) The resolution of problems such as disease control or improved quality in crop plants and animals will require an integrated approach that combines exper- tise ranging from economics to biochemistry. (Plac- ing organisms or phenomena in a systems context is particularly relevant to the new category of multidis- ciplinary grants; see later sections of the chapter). 6. This has been the case in all areas of science, including those closely related to agriculture, food, and the environment. For example, basic research has helped scientists to understand gene transfer mecha- nisms in plants, develop and refine analytical chemis- try methods, understand the physiology of plant re- sponses to stress, describe the mechanisms important to animal and human reproduction, and develop con- trols for human and animal viruses.

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This book provides an analysis of funding for agricultural research in the United States and presents a proposal to strengthen this system. Its premise is that a judicious but substantial increase in research funding through competitive grants is the best way to sustain and strengthen the U.S. agricultural, food, and environmental system. The proposal calls for an increased public investment in research; a broadened scientific scope and expanded program areas of research; and four categories of competitively awarded grants, with an emphasis on multidisciplinary research.

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