LTRAS Seed Grant Program

The UCD Department of Agronomy and Range Science recently announced a one-time internal competitive "seed grant" program, to support UCD faculty doing research at LTRAS. Proposals to measure those "parameters and processes [most] likely to change significantly during the early years of the 100-year experiment" will be favored. The emphasis at LTRAS on long-term trends makes it particularly important to maximize sampling and field measurements during the first cropping cycle, which is now in progress. Baseline funding for LTRAS is provided by the UCD College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) and the California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR). Despite tight budgets, the college has made a long-term commitment to support a "core level of infrastructure" (staff salaries, farming operations and some essential data collection). However, CAES and DANR cannot provide the additional funds needed to fully exploit research opportunities at LTRAS. We expect these additional funds to come mainly from external grants. For example, nine UCD faculty members recently submitted a $574,000 grant proposal to the USDA "Agricultural Systems" program to support research at LTRAS. Smaller grants, such as those recently received from SAREP and WRC (p. 5) are also important. A secondary objective of the LTRAS Seed Grant Program is to provide the preliminary data needed to write successful grant proposals. Funds for LTRAS Seed Grants will be provided from a departmental endowment established in 1927 by Mary J.L. McDonald. In choosing among proposals of very similar quality and importance, proposals from faculty in Agronomy and Range Science will therefore have priority. Proposals including undergraduate research opportunities will also be favored. A request for proposals was sent to UCD Faculty on the LTRAS mailing list; additional copies may be obtained from Ford Denison at (916)752-9688. Staff Changes at LTRAS