Strengthening grants provided by the NRI program have had a major impact on the careers and productivity of faculty who otherwise would not receive federal grant support.

The NRI staff has been successful in organizing several vehicles to promote public understanding of research in the food, fiber, and natural-resources area, particularly in view of the organization’s limited resources.

NRI complements other USDA activities, but more emphasis might be placed on coordinating ARS and NRI agendas.

NRI does not duplicate other federal research efforts.

Although the NRI actively participates in cross-agency funding opportunities to ensure complementarity of research efforts, it follows rather than leads in these efforts. The NRI suffers from being smaller than other agencies; this limits the amount of resources it can contribute to interagency initiatives.

No process exists for establishing formal relationships with other federal agencies or for consulting and using stakeholder groups.

Industry-NRI interaction is well below what might be fruitfully pursued.