{"id":4579,"date":"2023-11-29T23:50:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T23:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/?p=4579"},"modified":"2023-11-30T06:08:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T06:08:14","slug":"putting-the-ars-in-grape-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/2023\/11\/29\/putting-the-ars-in-grape-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the ARS in Grape Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most impactful ways the National Grape Research Alliance serves the research needs of the grape and wine industry is through our close working relationship with the USDA\u2014in particular, its Agricultural Research Service. ARS is the Department\u2019s in-house (or intramural) research arm.* The agency employs 2,000 scientists and has research units across the nation. Of its $1.7 billion fiscal year budget, ARS commits some $25 million to grape research, often with input from NGRA.<\/p>\n

ARS looks to NGRA to provide a unified voice for the grape and wine industry in administering its scientific resources in support of our collective research needs. Since our founding in 2005, NGRA has held a Grape Industry Workshop with ARS every two to five years, in alignment with the five-year cycle for the agency\u2019s research programs. Due largely to the Covid-19 pandemic, the last ARS workshop was in 2017. But this year, we triumphantly revived it\u2014bigger and better than ever.<\/p>\n

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On November 7-8, 2023, at the USDA\u2019s National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD, 30 members of NGRA, representing all grape sectors and regions of the US, gathered with 50 ARS scientists (23 of them speaking, many among ARS\u2019 most decorated) and administrators, including ARS Administrator Simon Liu and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Chavonda Jacobs-Young, who also serves as USDA\u2019s Chief Scientist and is a longtime NGRA ally. The star power also extended to representatives from other federal research funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation and Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research.<\/p>\n

On Day One of the two-day agenda<\/a>,<\/strong> NGRA Research Chair Nick Dokoozlian presented NGRA\u2019s research themes and priorities<\/a>,<\/strong> which were revised and ratified earlier this year. Then ARS scientists gave presentations on their research programs, arranged in sessions based on NGRA\u2019s research theme areas\u2014genetics and grapevine improvement, integrated production systems, natural resources and environment\u2014and with several featured under the heading, \u201cemerging industry issues.\u201d While most directly centered on viticulture, some of the presentations provided insights from adjacent areas of research, including corn genetics, tomato breeding, climate and soil science, AI and pheromone-based chicken egg sexing (fascinating!).<\/p>\n

Day Two brought breakout groups for brainstorming on research projects that NGRA and ARS could jointly launch. The exercise hinged off of a set of project concepts developed by NGRA\u2019s Research Theme Committees<\/a><\/strong> in the run up to the meeting. Nine small groups (three per research theme) were each assigned a project concept and worked to draft potential objectives. From those, the three most compelling concepts were selected to receive NGRA Research Fund planning grants. This funding will enable project champions (chosen in the breakouts) to gather prospective team members to refine and advance the concepts. The winning projects, shown with their working titles, were:<\/p>\n