Investing in Research A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System (1989) / Chapter Skim
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3 Rationale for the Proposal
3 Rationale for the Proposal
Pages 17-41
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From page 17... ...
agriculture and for agriculture's capacity to provide low-cost, nutritious food to consumers: increasing the efficiency and profitability of the food, fiber, and processing industries; reducing the environmental costs of such actions as pesticide use and waste management; making available, and using, modern equipment and technology that have state-of-the-art control and management systems and sensors. Contributing to human health and well-being is the goal of the entire agricultural and food system: increasing the nutrient availability of all foods; making optimally nutritious foods conveniently available to all Americans even while social patterns are changing; and elucidating the full relationship between diet and health.
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From page 18... ...
For program reasons, too, funding for this expanded research program is a federal, not a state, responsibility. The research to be funded by the expanded competitive grants program will not-even in mission-linked and research-strengthening grants fund research that is narrowly focused on local, state, or regional needs.
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. aThe food industry composite includes 25 companies with gross sales of $88.6 billion, including two seed companies (whose percent R&D of pretax profits are 50.9 and 86.8)
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current funding for the agricultural research system cannot adequately support either the in-depth studies or the broad scope of science and technology necessary to maintain the competitiveness and sustainability of the overall agricultural, food, and environmental system. Investing in Agriculture Investment in agricultural research strengthens both agriculture and science because progress in agriculture and advances in science are reciprocal.
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Totalannualexpenditure: $250 million. About 180 fundamental multidisciplinary team grants for an average duration of 4 years.
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The proposed average grant size for the expanded USDA program - 100,000 per year per investigator makes the USDA grants not only sufficient but also competitive with NSF and NIH grants. TABLE 3.2 What a USDA Competitive Grant Can Buy (in dollars per year)
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Percentage of requested amount awarded Average amount of new awards (in thousands of dollars/year) $50.0 $339.2 $1,096.7 $37.2 10.9% $61.5 5.6% $69.6 $3,728.7$461.5 $1,098.5$167.4 29.0%36.0% $154.9$156.2 aData represent grants from the Competitive Research Grants Office of the Cooperative State Research Service.
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dollars) USDA Competitive Research 46,200b 2 Grants Office 48.8 NSF Directorate for 70,000 2-3248.9 Biological, Behavioral, and Social Sciences DOES Biological Energy 72,000 3-3.511.8 Research Division NIH 164,000 3-3.54,900.0 Values given for FY 1986 awards include both direct and indirect costs.
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. Number and Size of Grants by Type Recent funding levels for the USDA competitive research grants program have ranged from $46.0 million in 1985 to $39.7 million in 1989 (see Table A.19)
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They must be given a major emphasis in the expanded USDA competitive grants program. Assuming that a principal investigator grant represents funding for one senior scientist, a student, and a technician for 3 years; that a fundamental multidisciplinary team grant represents funding for at least two collaborating senior scientists and staff for 4 years; and that a mission-linked multidisciplinary team research grant represents funding for a team headed by four senior investigators for 4 years, then one can construct a table (see Table 3.7)
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From page 27... ...
(2) Fundamental multidisciplinary team grants: average of two principal investigators per grant, each at $100,000 per year; for this calculation average length is assumed to be 4 years.
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bPercentage of scientists receiving USDA competitive grants is estimated on the basis of the following assumptions: 70 percent of an average of 425 grants awarded annually are received by agricultural scientists; 30 percent of grants are awarded to agriculture-related biological scientists. These assumptions are consistent with data provided by the Competitive Research Grants Office on the distribution of USDA competitive grant awards.
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From page 29... ...
and Cooperative Extension Service systems, it involves the land-grant universities, the colleges of 1890, and the Tuskegee Institute; through the Agricultural Research Service, Cooperative State Research Service, Extension Service, and, to some extent, the Economic Research Service and U.S. Forest Service, it involves USDA.
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The significance of an expanded USDA competitive grants program is that it would use federal funds to provide major necessary support for fundamental research of national value, thereby lessening some of the competition for state funds, which could then appropriately be applied, in part, to state and regional problems. The state-federal partnership has been, and will continue to be, a key factor in converting research results, whether fundamental or applied, into technologi~es and knowledge that are usable by producers and processors and then, through the cooperative extension system, in getting them applied.
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From page 31... ...
Moreover, USDA has shown that it can professionally administer and manage a competitive grants program. The third reason that this substantial increase should be enacted in a single year is a reflection of the broadened scope of agricultural, food, and environmental research and of the importance of sustained agricultural advancement for the U.S.
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From page 32... ...
Ongoing ARS programs correspond closely to the proposed six major program areas. ARS scientists can participate in the expanded competitive grants program by applying for grants, by identifying the mission-linked research needs and priorities of USDA and other federal agencies, and by serving on peer review panels.
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In addition to competing for grants from the expanded competitive grants programs, SAKS scientists will have important roles to play in serving on competitive grants program advisory committees and peer review panels, defining program priorities, identifying mission-linked research issues, and reviewing multidisciplinary research proposals. Important but sometimes ignored in the universitybased agricultural research system are the scientists who are not operationally within the SAKS system but who are interested in and contribute to research important to agriculture.
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(See Appendix A for details of the formula.) Formula funding provides a relatively stable resource base and is an important source of support for a variety of important activities, including long-term studies; for the more applied research that helps states meet their responsibilities for food safety, nutrition, pesticide safety, and animal care and disease prevention and for assisting states working on multistate, regional problems; as well as for graduate student training.
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The strengths of the paradigms often come from single disciplines end the competitive "rants funding mechanism are elaborated scientists on peer review panels may from single in a subsequent section. ~~ ~ ~~ - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 35 can be particularly onerous when the duration of grants is too short, as is now the case with the USDA competitive grants program.
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Talent and Openness In addition to its responsiveness and flexibility, an expanded USDA competitive grants program will have the advantage of being able to attract additional scientists to the agricultural, food, and environmental system and to retain them. It will do so by expanding opportunities for scientists who are currently involved in agricultural research; by drawing productive, proven scientists from other areas into agricultural research; by attracting and retaining new, younger scientists into agricultural research at the beginning of their careers; by removing financial and other barriers impeding women, underrepresented minorities, and disabled individuals and providing them with greater opportunities for research; and by encouraging and supporting work across all the program areas areas in which many scientists both inside and outside agriculture are strongly interested.
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help active scientists take greater advantage of the developments rapidly occurring across all fields of science. Both of these can best be done with competitive grants, yet the presentUSDA competitive grants program now awards far too few grants to fully perform the task.
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. To realize the full potential of science and technol ogy in agricultural, food, and environmental research, the USDA competitive grants program should direct up to 50 percent of its support to multidisciplinary research (through multidisciplinary team grants, both fundamental and mission-linked)
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But the terms team and multidisciplinary may also suggest the concept of a research center. That association is incorrect, however, because center implies a larger research group, a more permanent or long-term association, and a physical facility, whereas the multidisciplinary team grants proposed for the USDA competitive grants program are intended to go to small teams of probably two to four scientists and to extend for no longer than one grant cycle, with the possibility of one renewal.
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Further, some of the SAKS use internal competitive grants programs to allocate portions of their state and industrial support.
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