In attendance:  Wendie Cohick (Chair-New Jersey), Anton Bekkerman (Past Chair-New Hampshire), Elaine Rossi Griffin (New Jersey), Puneet Srivastava (Maryland), Margaret Smith (New York-Ithaca), Chris Smart (New York-Geneva), Blair Siegfried (Pennsylvania), Beth Gugino (Pennsylvania), Josh Kohut (New Jersey), Diane French (New Jersey), Yu Jiang (New York-Geneva), Vagner Benedito (Maryland Eastern Shore), Bill Miller (Massachusetts), Jorge Atiles (West Virginia), Antonio Ditomasso (New York-Ithaca), Eric Bishop von Wettberg (Vermont), Gulni Ozbay (Delaware State), Lisa Townson (Rhode Island), Gretta Tritch Roman (Pennsylvania), Rick Rhodes (agInnovation Northeast), David Leibovitz (agInnovation Northeast)​

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Meeting Admnistration

• Wendie called the meeting to order, and the group went through a series of introductions.

• The agenda for this meeting was approved unanimously.

• The minutes of the March 25-26 business meeting were approved unanimously.

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Multistate Activities Committee (Puneet Srivastava, MAC Chair)

• A report and recommendations to support the MAC discussion was posted on the agInnovation Northeast website.

• The MAC recommends NE_TEMP2509 Status and Management of herbicide-resistant weeds for approval following peer review and revision.

  • Following the MAC’s recommendation, the agInnovation Northeast Directors approved NE_TEMP2509 unanimously.

• Beth Gugino was nominated to serve as administrative adviser of NEERA2104, replacing Margaret Smith.

  • agInnovation Northeast Directors approved Beth’s nomination unanimously.

• Josh Kohut volunteered to serve as administrative adviser of NE2206 and NRSP_TEMP13.

  • agInnovation Northeast Directors approved Josh’s appointments unanimously.

• Toni DiTomasso volunteered to serve as administrative adviser of NE2338.

  • agInnovation Northeast Directors approved Toni’s nomination unanimously.

• Motions to approve each of the National Research Support Projects currently undergoing review or revision will be brought forward to agInnovation Directors this summer for voting.  The motions will be drafted with conditions set by the NRSP Review Committee that incorporated feedback from the regional associations of agInnovation.

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SEBS/NJAES Office of Research (Josh Kohut)

• Josh delivered a presentation on the NJAES Office of Research, and his slides are posted on the agInnovation Northeast website.

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Work Session:  Continuing Responses to a Brave New World (Wendie Cohick, Rick Rhodes, and all)

• Talking points on Capacity Funds for research at 1862 and 1890 institutions were circulated to the group and will be posted on the agInnovation Northeast website.  It’s our responsibility to preserve and protect our institutional resources and the resources of the entire system.

• Strategies for deployment of capacity funds are different in every state, but there is a consistency in meeting the mission mandates of the funding agency (NIFA), the institution, and its stakeholders.

• Can agInnovation Northeast develop common guidance/a template for dealing with federal liaisons in the current political climate?

• We need to aggregate stories from our constituents and stakeholders that support the Capacity Grants talking points.

• There is a great sense of urgency to organize and develop our common message.  We need to be ready to deploy immediately – organizing in advance of legislative budget decisions is critical.  Once the Senate makes decisions on the budget proposal, we need to directly pivot to action.

• Cornell AgriTech’s office of government relations was advised to “activate immediately” – target key House ag appropriations committee members in-state.  Leaders of regional facilities across NY state have engaged local stakeholders to draft letters and impact stories which were all forwarded to legislators Washington.

• APLU provided guidance to CARET delegates that producing videos is an important activity and an effective way to capture the voices and the images of farmers and stakeholders.

• Infographics may be a strong product for us to develop; attention spans may not be long enough for decision makers to read our full slate of talking points.  Infographics are more easily digestible.

• How many jobs have been created by capacity infrastructure?  Job creation, economic viability may be viewed as priorities for this administration.  (Alternatively, the Executive Branch has made the swift cutting of jobs as a 2025 priority, so we may need to consider careful framing of “job creation”.)

• Internal institutional communication is important, and frequently a missed opportunity.  Directors are encouraged to communicate the value and impact of capacity funds to central administration, faculty members, and the institution at large.  Faculty should be aware of where their money is coming from.

• Could there be an opportunity for us to create regional stories and develop a one-pager or other collateral materials to promote those regional stories?

• Could we work with Yu Jiang to utilize AI and our Agenda/regional stories to create exciting videos/graphics/materials for the region?

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agInnovation Northeast Regional Business

• The FY2026 budget proposal was presented and the group elected to vote on the budget at this meeting. 

  • The FY2026 budget proposal for agInnovation Northeast was approved, with the caveat that the budget will be revisited at mid-year in the event of significant cuts to capacity funds. 

  • As a reminder to all, institutions will be invoiced for the full amount of the FY2026 agInnovation Northeast assessment on July 1, 2025.  A budget explanation will be posted on the agInnovation Northeast website to support the assessment invoices.  (https://www.aginnovation-northeast.org/assessments-and-budget)

• Gretta Tritch Roman (Penn State) presented on the Ag Tech Corridor initiative, which is inspired by Senate Farm Bill text.  Gretta’s slides are posted on the agInnovation Northeast website. 

  • The Innovation Incubator Network would like to hold a meeting this fall which could be supported by funding from agInnovation Northeast.

• agInnovation Northeast is seeking its next Officer-at-large, who will be elected at the fall business meeting (location TBD).

• Directors are encouraged to consider hosting the 2026 agInnovation Northeast Spring Meeting at a campus or branch Experiment Station facility.

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The meeting adjourned at 12:00 pm ET.