Posts Tagged: Barbara Allen-Diaz

VP to present at regents meeting May 15

VP Barbara Allen-Diaz will give a presentation about ANR at the May 15 regents meeting in Sacramento. “Investing in California” is the second discussion item on the Committee on Educational Policy’s agenda, which begins at 1 p.m. and adjourns at 2:20 p.m.

The regents will be meeting at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J Street, and the educational policy session is open to the public. Background material was mailed to the regents in advance of the meeting.

To watch the meeting live, visit http://lecture.ucsf.edu/ETS/Catalog/Full/333992fe14054d6bae39512a30188f3421.

The Microsoft Silverlight plugin is required on desktop computers. Mediasite presentations can also be viewed on Apple, Android and Blackberry mobile devices. The iPhone and iPod Touch devices require the free Mediasite app.

To listen to the audio without video, visit http://california.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2.

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Cuts to research funding are 'not sustainable'

To feed the growing world population, farmers will have to produce more food in the next 40 years than they have in the last 10,000, according to an op-ed piece published in the Modesto Bee and written by Barbara Allen-Diaz, vice president of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Don Bransford, chair of the UC President's Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources and a partner in Bransford Farms in Colusa.

The article was written to bring attention to the fact that, despite the need to produce so much food in coming years, funds for agricultural research are being cut.

In December, President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recommended that the United States increase its investment in agricultural research by $700 million per year. Instead, the sequester resulted in cuts of approximately 7.6 percent.

"This is simply not sustainable," the op-ed authors note.

Read the article in the Modesto Bee.

 

VP Allen-Diaz: ANR statewide conference started conversations

I want to thank everyone who worked so tirelessly to pull the Global Food System Forum and our statewide conference together. And I especially want to thank those of you who attended, in person and virtually, and added your voices to so many conversations.  

I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, made some new contacts, put some faces to familiar names, renewed networks and found challenging ideas to take home with you.

We chose some of the world’s most confounding and contentious issues to focus on – from climate change to global hunger to water use. 

We heard a diversity of viewpoints, all of them expressed with insight, passion and mutual respect. We’ve shaken up old ideas and hopefully forged some pathways to new ones. We can’t be afraid to hold these kinds of conversations, listen carefully to diverse points of view, and then forge strategies to move forward with what we do best – apply the strength of research and education programs to help eliminate hunger, ensure accessible, affordable, safe and nutritious food, and ensure the conservation of our natural resources.  

The conversations we started at this conference won’t end here. It is clear to many people, both new friends and established, proven partners, that we have critical contributions to make and a global role to play through the work of UC ANR.

We also talked candidly and constructively about how Cooperative Extension and all of the UC ANR community fit together. I heard many speak of a powerful network of people with knowledge and tools committed to

• science-based information
• research and education
• local issues and solutions
• local communities
• global reach

Since our last UC ANR all-staff conference in 2009, many new academics and staff have joined the UC ANR community and we continue to recruit diverse, outstanding people for priority positions. These folks are the future of the Division and UC. I am excited by that future and by those who will join us to explore, create, discover, share, collaborate and work to ensure a California and a world that thrives.

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President

 

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

VP Allen-Diaz discusses importance of participating in the ANR Statewide Conference

VP Barbara Allen-Diaz wants all ANR members, and that includes you, to attend the ANR Statewide Conference in April. Visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/statewideconference2013, and click on the 2-minute video to hear her discuss the exciting UC Global Food Systems Forum as well as the numerous ANR activities planned at the conference.
 
More than 400 people have already registered for the ANR Statewide Conference on April 9-11. If you haven’t made hotel reservations for the conference, ANR has extended its block of discounted rooms at the DoubleTree by Hilton Ontario until tomorrow, March 15.
 
We have also begun posting on the Food 2025 blog. The blog features papers, videos and presentations from panelists and speakers who will participate in the Global Food Systems Forum. We want to hear from you!  Visit the blog and share your feedback. If you would like to contribute to the blog, contact Jennifer Rindahl at jlrindahl@ucanr.edu or (530) 754-3930.
 
A conversation about the issues that will be discussed at the Global Food Systems Forum is under way on Twitter. This week’s discussion topic is economic challenges to global food systems. Next week tweeters will be discussing technical challenges. To participate in the Twitter discussion, use #Food2025.

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

ANR’s 2013 competitive grants program

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that the request for proposals for ANR’s 2013 competitive grants program will be released this summer. Tentatively, we are expecting a new call in May or June.

Taking into consideration several comments, we have made a significant change to this year’s competitive grants proposal process. While the proposal solicitation and peer review processes will remain similar to former years, we will enable PIs to select a start date from two possible timeframes (April 2014 or August 2014). The flexibility in start dates is to provide the time needed to find graduate students and modify project goals to align with seasonal considerations and to facilitate the collaboration between PIs and partners, both internal and external. We also have heard about the desire for a different type of feedback on non-funded proposals and will work with ANR Program Council to discuss this request.

Tentative 2013 competitive grants cycle:

• May/June 2013 – call released
• August/September 2013 – application submission cycle
• October/November 2013 – technical peer review
• December 2013/January 2014 – strategic initiative review and recommendations
• February 2014 – program council review and recommendations
• March 2014 – announcement of funded grants

ANR will continue to invest in research, education and outreach projects to support high-priority issues that are consistent with the Strategic Vision; encourage collaboration among academics; support short-term, high-impact projects; strengthen the research-extension continuum; and contribute policy-relevant outcomes that address significant statewide agricultural, economic, environmental and social issues in California.

The last two competitive grant cycles yielded excellent projects and significant endeavors.  In 2011, 21 projects were funded totaling $4,462,719. In 2012, 16 projects were funded totaling $3,770,639. I am excited by the level of engagement our academics have created for many of our external and internal partners, and I am especially pleased to share with you that 66 students have been included as participants in these grant projects.

While the funds available for the competitive grants program will depend on a number of factors, we anticipate funding to be roughly the same as last year. We are committed to providing as much support as feasible to address high-priority issues.

Sincerely,

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President

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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

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