The College of Agricultural Sciences received its highest ever amount of annual research funding in FY23, bringing in more than $114M. This us up over 30% from last year which was also an all-time record for college research funding
Over the past three years, the college has doubled its research funding. This is a testament to our active and talented faculty and recognition of the exceptional work we continue to do.
A robust combination of federal and state agencies, numerous foundations, and non-profits supported research at the College. This is in addition to continued investment from industry through the Agricultural Research Foundation. Some examples of the diversity of this year’s research grants include:
Climate-Smart Potatoes
$50,000,000 — USDA-Natural Resource Science Service
This project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced.
Predicting transformation of emergent freshwater networks under variable climate regimes
$3,000,000 — NSF: URoL (Understanding the Rules of Life- Rules of Resilience)
This multi-institution, multi-disciplinary team will test the effects of changing climatic conditions on freshwater ecosystems. This collaboration combines technology (artificial intelligence and distributed computing) with biological theory to understand freshwater systems using observational, experimental, and modeling approaches. This interdisciplinary team will test ecological frameworks and explore resilience to environmental change.
Developing new technologies and decision tools to enable resilient and sustainable production of over 220 agricultural commodities for Oregon.
$1,685,440, NSF Emerging Frontiers
The research will be conducted in three widely grown crops: wheat, tomato, and poplar. New knowledge and genetic material will be widely shared to enable rapid adoption by breeding programs and producers around the world. The education program will provide employment and training to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral scholars. Partnerships with Heritage University and Blue Mountain Community College will help to recruit students from traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM to our undergraduate summer program.
This sampling of the diversity of research funding secured this year underscores the broad-reaching scope of the College’s growing research portfolio which is being conducted across the college system, including our 14 departments , our agricultural experiment stations, and several national and international research centers. Together, our researchers continue to strive to solve problems for local communities and businesses across Oregon and around the world.