The Pizza Test

Research takes time. And really big, complex research projects require teams of people, collaborating, advising and managing the work to accomplish game-changing results, typically within four or five years. That’s a long time to work together, managing millions of dollars and attempting to solve priority problems with people you may not know very well—if at all. I recently chatted with Oregon State University professor and viticulture extension specialist Patty Skinkis about the long-term, high-stakes collaboration research requires on an episode of the podcast she produces for the HiRes Vineyard Nutrition project.

As Patty and I discuss on air, unlike other grape-research focused organizations, NGRA initiates research projects vs. receiving proposals to fund. We’re so proud of the HiRes project–a product of the process by which our industry-led organization identifies vital new research to pursue. As they brainstormed research themes, NGRA’s Integrated Production Systems Research Committee, then chaired by Russ Smithyman (now at Gallo), hit on the idea to develop new tools or technologies that could enable grape growers to assess grapevine nutrition status in real time, right in the field. Virginia Tech’s legendary Tony Wolf (then a member of the committee, now retired) graciously helped us outline the project. And we were thrilled that Washington State University viticulture professor Markus Keller, who literally wrote the book on The Science of Grapevines, accepted our invitation to lead it. A star-studded scientific team of co-directors and collaborators from universities across the country contribute their expertise to this consequential USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative-funded project. Many of them didn’t know one another previously or had never worked together. So, how did they come together here?

By virtue of our national, grape-sector-spanning membership, relationships with federal agencies and academic institutions nationwide, and robust attendance at industry and academic conferences, NGRA can help to identify and introduce experts who are best-positioned to address issues we seek to solve. Working with our project directors (in this case, Markus), we connect the best and brightest scientists—like Patty, a HiRes project co-director, who said yes to leading the outreach, social science and economics team—to help tackle our collective industry challenges.

But none of it would work without the pizza test. We learned this highly technical concept from some of our scientific colleagues over the years. Basically, the concept is, if you wouldn’t be happy to share a pizza (or, some say, a beer) with someone, you wouldn’t want to be stuck with them for years, sharing accountabilities for research dollars and deliverables. So, as we work to help assemble project teams, we use our gut (so to speak) to suggest collaborators who might enjoy a slice or two of pepperoni together.

The HiRes Vineyard Nutrition project is now in its fifth and final year, having been granted a no-cost extension to wrap up its findings. I’m proud to serve on the project advisory panel with several other NGRA stakeholders. We’re excited to see how much this far-flung group of researchers accomplished to advance grapevine nutrition in just five years. Take a listen to the project’s podcast to tap into some of the learnings, and watch this space for more news, coming soon!

P.S. I’ve been producing NGRA’s monthly newsletter, which includes my column at top, since April 2017. So, incredibly, this is my 100th column! Thanks for reading!

Donnell Brown
President