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Introduction

In 1862, Congress created the land-grant system through the first Morrill Act. The Act established a new policy of providing federal support for postsecondary education in agriculture, the “mechanical arts,” and other subjects, specifically enabling citizens across the socioeconomic spectrum to access educational opportunities previously available only to the “landed gentry” (CRS, 2019). In total, 111 land-grant colleges and universities have been established across all states and many territories, including American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 and the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994 created three institutional categories of the land-grant system, now known as the “1862s,” “1890s,” and “1994s.” The 1862 institutions were the first land-grant colleges and universities; the 1890 institutions are Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with agricultural and allied programs; and the 1994 institutions are Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). Subsequent legislation recognized additional categories for specific programs, including non-land-grant colleges of agriculture and Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and universities.

The national system of land-grant colleges and universities created under this legislative framework has been noted for its breadth, reach, and excellence in research, education, and extension. Kopp (2021) wrote that the “land-grant universities, together with the associated agricultural experiment stations and cooperative extension services, have played a crucial role in democratizing scientific knowledge and addressing intertwined educational, environmental, economic, and democratic challenges within the USA. Indeed, they have arguably pioneered the idea of ‘usable science.’”

Currently, the identity of each land-grant entity is one of an independent enterprise rather than as a member of a national, integrated, and comprehensive system. In large part, each is dedicated to serving the clientele of its home state by providing opportunities for higher education, basic and applied research, and extension services. At the time of the first Morrill Act in 1862, that meant meeting the needs of the farming communities to which most Americans belonged. The agricultural industry remains an important focus of many land-grant colleges and universities, even as their portfolios are evolving to serve more diverse interests and needs. As an essential societal endeavor, agriculture in the United States has undergone tremendous change in the past 150 years, and the scientific and practical understanding of what makes it successful and sustainable continues to evolve. The production of food, fiber, and fuel is a complex biophysical and socioeconomic activity built on a finite natural resource base and shaped by (increasingly) variable abiotic and biotic environmental forces and by the effects of science and technology, input and output supply chains, consumer needs, policy, and regulation. No single institution can provide all of the answers to the questions that today’s agricultural producers must address, much less satisfy all that society wants from the food and agriculture system.

For this reason, the co-development and support of collaborative, systems-based approaches in research, education, and outreach across multiple land-grant colleges and universities to address the multifaceted problems now facing the agricultural and food systems are urgent needs that have been recognized by policy makers (e.g., CRS, 2019). A congressional directive in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a Blue Ribbon Panel to examine how cooperation in the land-grant system “including the 1890 institutions” could deepen and expand the impact of its contribution to meeting national needs and global food security.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) turned to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) for help in addressing the directive. To that end, the

National Academies established the Committee on Enhancing Collaboration Between Land-Grant Universities and Colleges (the Panel) to explore the potential to enhance the inter-institutional collaboration of participants from a diversity of land-grant colleges and universities to increase knowledge generation, solve problems, and create positive opportunities across the food and agricultural knowledge system. Increasing collaboration across the land-grant system would also improve both the perception and the reality of the system as an integrated whole with common goals and purposes.

The National Academies appointed the Panel members on the basis of their experience and expertise, and to be collectively representative of the different kinds of institutions (1862s, 1890s, 1994s) and stakeholders in the land-grant system. The Panel members include university leaders holding a wide range of leadership positions within land-grant colleges and universities as well as a state commissioner of agriculture, the executive director of a state beef cattle council, a member of a state Board of Regents, a venture capitalist, and a former science officer for a major food company. (See biographies of the Panel members in Appendix A.)

To guide its deliberations, the Panel was given a Statement of Task, which included some elements of process to facilitate the expedited (“fast-track”) development of a consensus report as follows.

STATEMENT OF TASK

An ad hoc study committee (Blue Ribbon Panel) will identify key factors for successful outcomes of coordinated and collaborative projects between colleges and universities in the Land-Grant system, including those involving Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and other institutions, which address national challenges and global food security. The committee will prepare a report recommending actions to enhance the success and impact of inter-institutional activities.

To accommodate a compressed study timeline, the committee will explore the opportunities and limitations of inter-institutional projects by focusing on case studies chosen from the portfolio of past Multistate Research and Extension Activities, Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAPs) of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, and other regional initiatives involving research, education, and extension. The committee will use the selected case studies to develop a framework of principles for fostering successful coordination and collaborations in pursuit of diverse outcomes. Outcomes may include those related to addressing specific national priorities, advancing knowledge, building human resource capacity, supporting commercial innovation, producing economic, environmental, and social benefits, and/or increasing public engagement. The committee will also consider factors that contribute to administrative goals of efficiency, ease, and transparency in reporting and in documenting impacts within and across projects.

After deliberating on the case studies, the committee will present to stakeholders, at a multiday virtual workshop, a conceptual overview of its framework of principles for successful coordinated and collaborative activities. Based on feedback from the workshop participants, the committee will finalize and describe the principles in a short report that recommends actions to reduce barriers to effective coordination and to foster impactful collaboration. The committee's report also will recommend processes that Land-Grant schools can use to capture and share successes, outcomes, and impacts of joint projects.

STUDY PROCESS: HOW THE PANEL CONDUCTED ITS WORK

In November 2021, the fast-track study began with a virtual, public meeting with USDA officials, including the Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics and Director of NIFA, to gain insight into the agency’s view of the charge to the Panel. These officials suggested that the Panel should be expansive in its thinking and ambitious in its recommendations for actions by Congress, potentially as input to Farm Bill discussions, and by NIFA and the institutions of the land-grant system.

Following the initial meeting, the Panel held a series of closed meetings during which members explored impressions of and experiences with collaborative activities in the system. The Panel received a background presentation on the Multistate Research Program from a consultant, a former executive director of the Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors.

The collective history and perspectives of the Panel members, many of whom have experienced land-grant colleges and universities as undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students, and later as faculty members and administrators, was the starting point for deliberations on what attributes of collaboration contribute to a definition of success. The Panel identified several examples of projects perceived by one or more members as having a reputation of success, but the Panel did not conduct an exhaustive review of all of the collaborative activities in the land-grant system. The examples selected by the Panel provided the basis for discussions around the diversity of activities and the limitations of collaboration.

Due to the tight project schedule and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it proved impossible to schedule a single, multiday workshop for stakeholders. Moreover, the Panel felt that there were additional ways to obtain feedback from stakeholders, including from those less likely to have an opportunity to comment during a workshop. Therefore, in the spring of 2022, the Panel developed 17 preliminary observations (see Appendix C) about collaboration in the land-grant system that were posted on the study website to solicit feedback from stakeholders. The website and portal for submitting comments on the preliminary observations were publicized in the e-newsletter of the National Academies’ Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources and other National Academies’ newsletters. An announcement was posted on the NIFA website and circulated through NIFA e-news. The Panel chair gave zoom briefings to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Extension Committee on Organization and Policy and Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy, and Panel members used their professional networks in academe, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, and elsewhere to publicize the portal.

The website and comment portal were open for 3.5 weeks beginning in mid-April 2022. The Panel received responses from 78 individuals (see Appendix D), reflecting a diversity of respondents that included agricultural producers; experiment station directors; extension administrators; land-grant directors and coordinators from TCUs and HBCUs; and associate, assistant, and full professors from 1862, 1890, and 1994 institutions. The full text of the comments is posted in the public access file for the study.¹ These comments helped shape the conclusions and recommendations of the Panel.

The comments received also prompted the Panel to explore several topics more deeply (see Appendix B), beginning with a public webinar in June 2022 on the science of team science, followed by three virtual mini-workshops held between July and August 2022:

• Enhancing Collaboration and Deepening Impact: Can Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Enable New Collaborative Platforms Between Diverse Land-Grant Institutions and Create More Impactful Outcomes? This workshop addressed the power of data science and analytics in food and agriculture “to accelerate research, expand America’s workforce, and transform the future of the system.” The workshop also illuminated how the attributes of the “collaborative platform” approach can overcome barriers to equitable participation in more conventional collaborations.
• Building and Sustaining a Culture of Collaboration Across the Land-Grant System. The workshop explored different examples of federally supported collaborative agricultural and other programs and projects that provide foundations on which collaborations can build.
• The Role of Capacity for Collaboration in the Land-Grant System. The workshop speakers shared their views on what capacity means in terms of their land-grant colleges and universities and the factors that allow participation in collaborative activities. They described what could help them build capacity and where capacity is most needed.

Informed by stakeholder feedback and the webinar and workshops, the Panel completed its report, which was anonymously peer reviewed according to the National Academies’ procedures before being revised and subsequently approved for public release.

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¹ See www.nationalacademies.org, accessed September 20, 2022.

ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT

Chapter 2 of the report describes the multistate research projects, CAPs, and other examples of collaborative projects, and explores their benefits, limitations, and associated outcomes. Chapter 3 lays out a broad framing of what is at stake and the main ingredients needed to take on national challenges and global food security: cutting-edge science from across all disciplines, a strong collaborative organization, and availability of funding to support the work. Chapter 4 describes the beginning of a framework around principles for enhancing the success and impact of collaboration, by examining barriers to collaboration and the need to build communication strategies. The Panel offers seven recommendations. Chapter 5 discusses next steps in what must be a continued conversation around collaboration in the land-grant system.

Appendix A contains biographies of the Panel members. Appendix B is a listing of the agendas for public webinars and workshops described above and information on accessing video recordings of the events. Appendix C contains the Panel’s preliminary observations posted for online comment. Appendix D is a brief summary of the topics raised in response, and information about the backgrounds of respondents.