Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Tuesday, February 3, 2015 Complete set of minutes is attached. State reports are attached in the publications sections. • Meeting called to order by Thomas Baum at 8:47 AM o Minutes & Agenda • Thomas Baum organized an agenda without setting specific time restrictions • Approval of previous year’s minutes –approved unanimously • Sandy Pierson is Vice-chair/Secretary – will take minutes • Please send Thomas state reports electronically. He will assemble and send out o Steve Slack – Advisor (9:00 AM) • This committee was organized under the auspices of the Agriculture experiment station. Hence the name NCAC-14 • A benefit of this group is to provide unit leaders a 2nd opportunity to meet and discuss plant pathology, university and college business, and discuss teaching and funding challenges and opportunities • As a member, may be asked to review multi-state projects. Can simply send the reviews to his office and they will upload onto NIMS • Now called multi-state because not limited to any specific region affiliation ? Several of members are not yet officially recognized as members of the NCAC-14 group. Please ask your Expt. Station Direction to be added. Passed sheet around • One member duty is to provide reviews of other multi-state projects. There is a primary and a secondary reviewer. Following discussion a vote is taken. Next the project is reviewed by a 3-perspn NC group and submitted to the NC Station directors for approval o Update on NIFA federal funding Martin Draper 1. NIFA State of Affairs. Marty been at NIFA ~9 years. He will provide slides to the group. The finalized FY15 budget numbers arrived a week ago. Arriving so late causes a lag on when funds can be distributed. ? AFRI requested a review by the NRC. Report lists several conclusions: • Conclusion 1 – AFRI plays a critical role in funding agricultural research but is not supported with sufficient resources. Recommendation 1 – US needs to strengthen public investment in competitive R&D funding • Conclusion 2 – AFRI organization is unnecessarily complex. Recommendation 2 – Simplify by focusing on 6 research program areas. AFRI Response – there are advantages to the way it is done currently. For example, the current format allows focusing on both research and extension together (integrated projects). Otherwise, an organization focused solely on research fails the agencies mandated function. • Conclusion 3 – AFRI lacks a detailed articulated plan for prioritization. Recommendation 3 – Develop a strategic plan AFRI Response – this has been done, draft available June 13, Finalized Dec ’14; includes expected outcomes and measures. • Conclusion 4 – A diffuse management structure exists Recommendation 4 – Need to identify a dedicated leader. Response – Effie Baldwin (finances) + Mark Mirando (projects & strategies). 2. FY15 Budget (as we know, it is a Continuing Resolution (CR) ? AFRI increased to $325 M from $316 M (one of two changes), extension funding unchanged • Food + Ag Defense Init. (FADI), which includes NPDN, has a slight increase. A special grant, not in section 406. • IDC return rate now at 30%, but since the total funding was not increased, these monies come out of monies for projects, • A separate line exists for directed funding for animal & plant diagnostic labs • FADI a non-competitive program. • NIFA in essence has lost funding due to the CR status of the government maintaining a flat budget. No funding for capacity enhancement. • NIFA goal to re-establish its relationships with other key regulatory groups to reinforce its support. 3. Proposed NIFA FY16 Budget • Proposed changes: ? Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) be merged into Homeland Security (HHS) meaning NIFA the funding for FSIS. ? Pollinator protection – some fungicides can have toxic effects on beneficial pollinators, so RFPS will include asking for fruit crop folks to hook up with entomologists. • $206 M for ARS infrastructure improvements, including SE poultry research, BARC labs, Nat’L lab for Ag + the Environment, Watershed research, Children’s nutrition. ? Capacity / Formula (details not available) • Expecting Flat funding. Smith-Lever, McIntire-Stennis, Hatch, Native American. • Expecting an increase for 1890 institutions (~ $2 M) and 1994 institutions (~$1-4 M). • Expecting decrease for Animal Health & Disease (zeroed out again). • Overall an increase of $8 M up to $778 M. • Competitive – AFRI funding increase of $125 M to $450 M ? • Innovative Institutes (increase of $80M from 0) • Competitive capacity awards (increase of $20M from 0) • NIFA is done with leveraged CAP funding contributions from past grants • Food safety outreach (increase of $2-5M) • Farm Vets (increase of $3M from 0) • IDC (increase of $6-20 M (including building leases) ? E-grants administration (increase of $2-10M). Includes modernization of grant management software. • Grants for youth (increase of $1M from 0) • Proposed decreases • Crop protection/pest management (decrease of $2-29M) • Higher education programs (decrease of $3-35M) • Water quality (406) (zeroed out) • STEM (decrease to 0 from 11M (consolidated w/ USF + DOE) • Flat – everything else • Mandatory increase for Hispanic serving institutions (increase $10M from 0) • SCRI (increase of $4-55M) • OVERALL • NIFA up $241M to $1,668 Billion • At 5 PM Sonny Ramaswamy will give a televised talk 4. AFRI – RFA release delays due to Farm Bill requirements • Matching funds required • NLGCUA (non-landgrant colleges of agriculture) o Centers of excellence. No longer a physical location, a transient assemblage of expertise and capabilities. o New AFRI programs: ? CARE (Critical Ag Research Efforts) = $150K/yr. Very stakeholder-driven with expectation of immediate product outcomes within 3 years. Really only for very mature projects close to rollout. Exploratory = $100K for 1 yr. Requires creative approaches, for crazy ideas. Funding continuation dependent on an ad hoc – internal NIFA decision. Nat’L program Leaders (NPL’s) have authority. This is seed money to lead to more funding. NPLs are Kitty Cardwell + Rachel Melnick. ? Concern expressed because nonrealistic because really only $70K after IDC taken out and by the time a technician hired have only 7mo to complete. 5. AFRI Food Security RFA released Friday! More RFPs will be coming out soon, including foundational programs. Go to Grants.gov for releases. 6. Number of Plant Pathologists on NIFA Staff • Marty Draper (PLP + IPM); Ann Lichens-Park (Molecular Biology, plant-microbe interactions); Kitty Cardwell (climate change + SBIR); Rachel Melnick-Lippert (climate change, SBIR); Mervalin Morant (Food safety). • Of these, 4 of 5 within 5 years of retirement, need a succession plan. ? Staffing down from 130 to 70 NPLs. Partly due to Fed workforce reduction program that expects 1 replacement for every 3 worker. • How sequestration will affect everything is unclear. 7. Reeport System • Minimal issues affecting most faculty so far. Marty limited in comment sending – Marty sends emails because he cannot fix everything himself. • Time to return of comments due to faculty time, facility commitment and classification errors. 8. Hatch Funding Changes • Funds supposed to go out to universities quarterly (Oct, Jan, Apr, Jul). • Trying to fix. The current CR in Congress causes this mess since they do not have funds for 1st quarter when needed. 9. Safety Stand-down • Letter from Sonny Ramaswamy to PIs. Due to dangerous cultures still around in labs (10 select agents, including smallpox, anthrax, etc.). Marty can try to assist if a real issue • Request was sent to Expt. Sta. Directors. If necessary can send Marty a request for a form letter that says PI does not have problem Issues (emphasized only if needed). o 10:20AM-10:35 AM. The group took a break. Katherine Stevenson 1. APS Office of Education. Office relatively new. There are many groups in APS interested in education – need to coordinate. They serve basically as facilitators. • See Recent activities and initiatives (Appendix A). ? Especially. #4 support teaching faculty. Expanding teaching resources on APS website. Wish to collect course syllabi at a central location for faculty to use in programs. Please send your syllabi to Anisa Poletetruik. ? Have considered the ability to offer courses – but APS as a nonacademic group cannot do this. Courses must go through an academy department, but then questions arise as to who gets credit? Etc. ? At some institutions, distance education a possibility. There was discussion as to whether PLP distance education can work- is there sufficient market for these courses? Perhaps target young professionals and extension agents in other fields that need to know PLP, not undergraduate students. For example, Iowa State offers nematology during summer – but have to enroll at ISU. Ohio State has just approved certifications. Questions remain as to cost of course, • Cost of courses? In-state or out-of-state tuition? What about the Interweaving of certification courses (Continuing Education credits) with traditional courses? Extension specialist mini-courses, flipped course formats? • APS has the professional staff to make or capture webinars – can capture, can do remotely. • What about PLP seminars? Like a TED talk. How to get folks to volunteer to give these talks. One suggestion was to make this part of the APS Awards. Perhaps have a special session at the annual meeting for recording these talks. Lack of available time at APS meetings a concern as they are fairly busy already. 2. Suggestions for Office of Education • APS teaching lessons (disease lessons). How are they updated, who ensures done in timely manner? How to entice authors that this is a good use of time? Perhaps by providing metrics (# hits, downloads, etc.). This could make this effort worthwhile in P&T deliberations. Rick Bennett (APS President) 1. APS Update • APS Membership: • Currently about 5,000 members from 91 countries. 35% live outside the U.S. Of members, 20% are students and postdocs. 2. APS council: • Now has fewer members than before. Council meets 3 times per year. Monthly conference calls (often invite additional folks to join as relevant). Procedure is during October through April the Council determines and sets in place specific initiatives. During April through October the progress of the initiatives is monitored. 3. Key Priorities: • High quality science the highest priority. The PPB travels to Washington DC every spring and pushes for funding of all agriculture-related science without focusing on a limited number of specific agendas. Because of these efforts, APS is viewed in the capital as unbiased topic experts. Members often get contacted for more details and insight into a multitude of issues and bills. • Phytobiomes Initiative (PPB) (www.phytobiomes.com) (Jan Leach). • International Engagement (Sally Miller). APS interacts with other plant pathologic societies (e.g. China, England, Japan, etc.). APS will host the ICPP meeting to be held in Boston in 2018. • CADRE (career advancement) • Modern Journals: APS needs to develop new strategies to support journals. APS Individual subscriptions are declining. XML – first to launch, with alternate metrics to be included. Looking for member input as to specifically what to be doing, how to improve, etc. We must be able to compete with open access journals such as PLoS One. The upside of these journals is rapid publishing-the downside is poor peer review. ASM journals have moved to electronic versions as primary approach. • Pubpeer: A group that is going through journals and performing “post-publication” peer reviews. Identifying poor data, plagiarism, etc.). Group sends an email to the author and everyone in their department when they have an issue. Sounds like a witch hunt. For example, 30 publications from one researcher in Europe targeted by this group. • Private sector interactions: Developing an experiential focus award. Planning private sector tour in Research Triangle Park for postdocs and graduate students (July 14-15, 2015). Private sector opportunities, speakers being made available (see Courtney Gallup). Discussions of skills needed for success and career opportunities. The group had a discussion regarding this. One concern is we do a lot for the private sector, but they do little to support increased funding for us and our students in Washington DC. Needs to be a two-way street. • Borlaug’s Army initiative – free year membership in APS (www.apsnet.org/members/borlaugsarmy). Noted that undergraduate participation in APS at record high. • Other approaches discussed, including continuous member enhancement values, online image database, mobile activities. 4. Impacts in Research, Teaching, and Extension • There is an online tool that can capture impacts (www.apsnet.org/members/impactstatements). • Provides standardized formats • APS seeking new ideas for future initiatives: ? Submit at www.apsnet.org/members/pages/ideasmotivation.aspx ? Council reviews all suggestions. Connect w/ APS – Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. • Annual Meeting August 1-5, 2015 in Pasadena, CA. Theme this year is “Crossroads in Science”. Abstracts due Feb 2 – March 16, submit early if want to give an oral presentation. Will be interactive sessions, Phyto Views, Idea Cafes, Poster Huddles. • Lunch 12:00-1:40 Peter Goldsbrough ? Anyone working on phytobiomes? Every faculty member working on some aspect related to phytobiomes. Is there a definition of phytobiome research? • Michigan State recently hired 3 assistant professors in rhizosphere soil, genetics and ecology. Goal is to replace expertise of Jim Tedje. • Are we too late to get involved in this area? No, because it encompasses so many areas and questions, including the influence of animal-fed antibiotics on soil communities, taken up by plants that we subsequently eat. Marty mentioned that funding for this needs to increase, possibly through a NIFA – NSF joint program in the future. • EIB program is a government-wide program. Jim Bradeen ? AULF Plans and initiatives. Jim is Chair and Sandy is Vice Chair for 2015. ? Priorities – lots of interest with other groups. Met with APS council last October. Brad Day • Michigan State recently hired four fixed term non-TT professors to address hot topics. These positons have no teaching responsibilities and were given Start up and space. After the initial 5 years, completely soft-funded. Is this a national trend? No other examples mentioned. Other MSU faculty furious. A scary trend. Currently new faculty start when 35-38 years-old. This after having done a long apprenticeship as a graduate student and multiple postdocs. What is the impact of this on the attractiveness of this for a career? Career sustainability? What is the 30 year projection for careers? General Discussions (a whorl-wind range of topics) • Switching from 12 month to 9 month appointments. There are many concerns, including loss of salary for 3 months in spite of need to be present and run research, field and oversee graduate and postdoc students. Effect on vacation accrual? National funding agencies expect deliverables based on a 12 month year, not a 9 month one. Another disturbing trend. • Minimum number of PhD and MS student graduations required over a 5 year period, plus student stipends. What is fair? Top stipends are $28-30,000/yr. MSU gives out 30-40 of these for the entire campus. Faculty pay in-state tuition. • APS Salary Survey is being redone currently. • Best approach to use when having a student who has not finished up and funding is ending. Either can pay hourly, or they must self-fund while completing their degree. Discussion mentioned U. Arkansas offers 4 year stipends for PhD degrees. Graduate students are reviewed annually for progress. What constitutes acceptable progress to maintain funding? What mechanisms can ensure progress being made? • Diversity needs: training and how to encourage more diversity. What is the baseline for what institutes are doing? • Innovative Nonconventional Teaching Methods: • APS council feedback for academic unit leaders: There are funds to support AULF meetings outside APS. Goals include improved cross-communication, encourage inter-collaboration. Request that we utilize AULF web site for communications and alerts, not a large group email list. Need to check if everyone getting alerts and notifications from site. The NCAC-14 minutes will be posted on the AULF web site. • Identifying non-traditional students for recruitment; “flipped classes”, inter institutional teaching pro’s and con’s. Steve Slack • Would like to increase members in NCAC-14. Thinks some not involved because believe it is regional. He recommends sending minutes of NCAC-14 meetings to every plant pathology-related academic leader. Also, we should personally contact potential members, and ensure notification of the meetings go to everyone. Sandy Pierson • Presented update of efforts at Texas A&M to revise graduate course curriculum (Appendix B). Students now take an introductory PLP course with a lab and a methods I plant-microbe interaction course plus 6 5-week modules on organismal and processes involved in pathogenesis and host perception and signaling. Asked for feedback on changes. Good comments on ideas behind modules as to subject matter, and a suggestion for an additional hands-on lab course. Discussion of available faculty and funding for this effort. Daniel Collins (Alcorn State University) • Discussion of online courses and support for undergraduate (UG) research experiences. Talked about a major goal at Alcorn State is to get undergraduates hooked up with faculty for research experiences. Role of mentoring in increasing student retention, increasing critical thinking skills. They have several sources for UG research support. At Penn State they award 50 UG grants worth $3,500 to students or faculty mentoring students. Another goal is to develop an online MS degree course aimed at professionals. • Alcorn State recruits from community colleges, and involves high school students in a 2 week experience back at their own schools. • Discussion of eLearning (online learning), balance between online hands-on learning with the future probably a mix of both online and in person. • Penn State – Currently offers two online PLP courses. • APS Education Center a useful resource for PLP. • Several community colleges have 2 year ag programs. • Texas A&M offers PLPA 499 & BURS fellowships to UGs for research experiences. Supply $2,000 to student to pay for supplies, etc.

NOTE: STATE REPORTS ARE ATTACHED HERE.