In attendance: Jason Hubbart (Chair-WV), Chris Smart (Vice Chair-NY Geneva), Beth Gugino (Officer at large-PA),  Josh Kohut (NJ), Anna Katharine Mansfield (NY Geneva), Jake Bowman (DE), Linda Prokopy (VT), Gretta Tritch Roman (PA), Tyler Messerschmidt (ME), Bill Miller (MA), Toni DiTommaso (NY Ithaca), Rick Rhodes (Executive Director agInnovation NE), David Leibovitz (Coordinator agInnovation NE)

 

Meeting Administration

• The agenda for the meeting was modified to correct the spelling of names and approved unanimously.

• The minutes of the December 18, 2025, business meeting were approved unanimously.

• Open discussion

  • PFAS (Chris Smart) – a special interest group “Citizens Concerned for the Environment” (CCE) has made unplanned visits to farms to test for PFAS. The group visited 8 farmstands in Suffolk County, purchased a small number of vegetables, found PFAS, and is now publicizing its findings with Stony Brook University. This is being seen as an irresponsible sharing of information, and the CCE name has been confused with Cornell Cooperative Extension.

  • Working With USDA NIFA (Bill Miller) – staff turnover from relocation and the administration change has resulted in lost institutional knowledge and expertise. Directors have an opportunity to inform and educate new NIFA personnel on how our processes and practices operate.

  • Communication comment (all): Special interest groups are gaining traction by publicizing bold, non-juried research findings in press and social media. What can AES learn from this? Does AES cloud its own message by acknowledging uncertainties in fact sheets and peer reviewed research?

 

Cornell AgriTech Station Profile (Chris Smart and Anna Katharine Mansfield)

• Synopsis:

• Cornell AgriTech has representation from four departments: horticulture, plant pathology, entomology, and food science.

• AgriTech is also home to a USDA ARS facility (Plant Genetic Resources Unit) which receives off-the-top funding from the Northeast region via the multistate project NE9.

• Cornell AgriTech was renamed from the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in 2018.

• On November 7, 2025, Cornell university reached an agreement with the Federal Government which resulted in the university paying pay $30M to the US Treasury, and dedicating $30M to support the future of agriculture in New York State.

 

Leading Through Change in Experiment Stations (Jason Hubbart)

• Click here to view slides from the presentation.

• Synopsis:

• Building trust, buy-in, and hope through organizational change. Buy-in (slow) over fear (fast)

• Sometimes, leaders avoid talking about change to keep people mellow.

• Why are we surprised when an initiative fails or doesn’t go as planned?

• Trust underpins everything. Communication runs through everything. When communication is lacking, people’s imaginations fill in the blanks.

• 70% buy-in is required for an initiative, or it may fail.

• Change resisters are frequently very loyal and deeply caring about an organization.

• Leaders should celebrate organizational wins – acknowledge the moment – then keep moving forward to culturally embed change.

• Leaders’ own fears are sometimes transmitted into organizations (“fear projection”).

• Time for reflection and closure is important – people in your organization will seek closure.

 

Multistate Activities Committee Discussion (Rick Rhodes)

• [NRSP Discussion] NRSP_TEMP_12: Building Integrated Research Networks to Advance the Conduct and Application of Science with Urban Communities

  • Dan Cronan (Washington State University) delivered a presentation on behalf of NRSP_TEMP_12. Click here to view slides from Dan’s presentation.

  • Synopsis:

  • There was an expectation among Directors that at the end of five years there was an exit strategy from the off-the-top funding. However, the proposal and presentation implied that there might be a request to renew the project for another five years.

  • Directors are seeking a better vision of the future of this initiative and what success looks like to the project team. What are the one or two compelling reasons for funding this project. That was not clear.

  • The Northeast acknowledges that urban agriculture is an important research area, addressing an important set of untapped constituencies.

  • There isn’t a principal investigator named from each region. The Directors seek greater engagement with the Northeast.

  • The Office of the Executive Director will frame Northeast recommendations on NRSP_TEMP_12 based on reflections from this conversation and circulate them electronically to the Directors for approval.

• [Administrative Adviser Approval] NE2501: Harnessing Chemical Ecology to Address Agricultural Pest and Pollinator Priorities (10/01/2025 - 09/30/2030)

  • Toni DiTommaso has been approved to serve as the AA for NE2501.

 

Communicating and Marketing the Value of the System (Stephanie Pearl)

• Click here to view slides from Stephanie’s presentation.

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Communicating and Marketing the Value of the System (Doug Steele and Bridget Krieger)

• CARET BAA meeting recap, February 2026: there was strong Northeast representation at the meeting, and the role of capacity funding is gaining appreciation among the legislative community.

• F&A Calculations/FAIR Model update: On April 8, 4:00pm ET, an invitation-only Zoom meeting is being held to discuss the F&A issues and the FAIR model.  Contact Rick if you are interested in attending the webinar.

• Capacity funding initiative update: on April 9, 4:00pm ET, a webinar will be held to discuss the first and second phases of the Capacity Initiative. Click here to register for the webinar.

• APLU “Homecoming” Legislative Event in DC is still going to be held (date TBD, either September or December). agInnovation and its regional associations will be invited.

• 2026 BAA Summer Leadership Meeting will be held in Portland, OR this July, for elected and appointed leaders within the BAA, its sections and committees.

• USDA unified terms and conditions. We are awaiting answers on unintended consequences associated with the new T&Cs. Several universities (primarily large Land-grants outside the Northeast region) are considering legal action against the USDA and the T&C as currently written. Are universities the only entities affected by this? Are there small stakeholders being affected?

• Farm Bill update:  House Ag Committee version of the Farm Bill passed, with 7 Democrats supporting its passage. Iran War / Epstein files / midterm elections might stand in the way of Congress’s ability to focus on the Farm Bill. Full Farm Bill markup is anticipated for release on May 5.

• Biotechnology continues to be a priority for the Executive Branch.

• Agencies are taking a variety of approaches to comply with the Executive Order requiring a political appointee to sign off on all grant awards.

 

Computational Research Initiative (Jason Hubbart and Rick Rhodes)

• Bandwidth limitations have capped engagement across the region, but the Directors recognize this is an important focus area.

• Rutgers is launching a faculty survey to determine research computing needs of units across the university. This will drive the university’s strategy to pursue computing and data infrastructure moving forward. NJAES is being encouraged to not ignore the need for data storage infrastructure, both for existing data, and data yet to be collected.

• Yu Jiang (Cornell AgriTech) is the third largest user of both physical server storage and cloud (Box) server storage at Cornell University. Box is paid for by the university, although there is pressure for Yu to pay for his share of Box as a “power user.”

• Delaware AES has identified needs for data storage related to Bioinformatics, and the university has declined to support that need.

• Institutions could take inventory and assess where we’re at and what our needs are, related to data storage and server infrastructure. Can we also assign value to our various datasets? This activity could result in a regional whitepaper.

• We could consider using the Rutgers faculty survey as a model for our regional initiative. Josh, Wendie Cohick, and Rick will discuss the Rutgers survey and the regional interest in following suit.

• Can we create a regional standard for metadata? Perhaps not a format, but can we identify shared fields for researchers to be gathering datapoints?

 

NE Graduate Student Forum (Chris Smart and Josh Kohut)

• Inspired by an idea from Anton Bekkerman and Chris Smart, this event is intended to serve as a forum for graduate students and post-docs at NE experiment stations to meet, network, and learn about each other’s research.

• This is an opportunity to showcase the breadth of research happening across the region; in contrast to attending events with a single discipline area focus.

• Event dates: May 26-28, 2026, at Rutgers University

  • 5/26 - Travel day

  • 5/27 - Oral and Poster Presentations

  • 5/28 - Breakfast and professional development event

• A small group of students have been involved in the organization of the event to inform the specifics of the agenda and call for abstracts.

• Rick will deliver a keynote presentation at the forum about Ag Experiment Stations and the Land-grant System.

• Students will have an opportunity to visit a Rutgers campus farm and agrivoltaics array during the event.

• The request for abstracts will be forthcoming.

 

The meeting on March 17 adjourned at 4:50 pm Eastern Time.​

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agInnovation Northeast Spring Meeting Minutes

March 18, 2026

Jordan Hall, Cornell AgriTech

Geneva, New York

 

In attendance: Jason Hubbart (Chair-WV), Beth Gugino (Officer at large-PA), Josh Kohut (NJ), Anna Katharine Mansfield (NY Geneva), Jake Bowman (DE), Gretta Tritch Roman (PA), Tyler Messerschmidt (ME), Bill Miller (MA), Toni DiTommaso (NY Ithaca), Rick Rhodes (Executive Director agInnovation NE), David Leibovitz (Coordinator agInnovation NE)

 

The attendance on March 18 did not constitute a quorum.  All decisions brought forth to the association today will be made electronically via email to all the Directors.

 

Effective Administrative Advisorhood (Rick Rhodes and David Leibovitz)

• Click here to view slides from this presentation.

• Discussion questions:

• What are some metrics we can use to illustrate the success of a multistate project? Consider a different framing than the “traditional” outputs (e.g. extramural funding, publications). What does the public care about? How can extension be involved in evaluating the success of multistate projects?

• How can we improve our storytelling? What audiences do we need to be addressing? How do we educate the public on the effectiveness of multistate projects?

 

NSF Engine Project Progress (Gretta Tritch Roman)

• A meeting was held in Philadelphia, February 4-6, 2026.The team developed some guiding design principles for the Engine proposal.

• Engines are anticipated to be identified by March 30, 2026.

• The Engine solicitation is anticipated for release in May 2026.

• Mini-Engines under consideration: Crop Management and Aquaculture

• By establishing preproposals, we can set up a successful Type I Engine submission.

• Individual meetings with each participating institution in April to identify partnerships and review the design principles.

• Action step: to all Directors participating in the Engine development, start considering an engagement plan for your institutions.

  • What will success look like? What are our metrics for success?

  • How can we target “cabinet level” state ag administrators who will be our key government partners?

• Is there an opportunity for a “Food Distribution” mini Engine? – we can solicit input from the region on this.

• The Pennsylvania Governor’s office has established an ag group and Penn State has been engaged with that team. The state government is taking influence on structure from the California Ag Tech Alliance/EU “triple helix” model.

• How do we approach state governments and position ourselves as the lead on handling this funding?

• An advantage of the “Smallness” of the northeast is that we have proximity to a critical mass of states and influential legislators.

 

agInnovation Updates

• Brian Schilling is drafting a letter in support of National Ag Statistics. Josh Kohut will be working with Brian and can represent agInnovation NE on behalf of the Directors.

• The inaugural agInnovation Northeast Grad Student / Post-Doctoral Forum is coming up, May 26-28, 2026, in New Brunswick, NJ. A call for abstracts will be released shortly and circulated to the Directors for distribution to their graduate student and post-doc networks.

• NE Research Impact Publication, showcasing mature and new/emerging projects from agInnovation NE stations, will be in development this year. This is an initiative where Directors are the target audience. We are seeking a short description and a photo for each identified project. All topic areas are welcome.

• The Northeast Joint Summer Session will be held June 1-3 in Burlington, Vermont. Registration and lodging reservations will be available in the next couple of weeks.

 

Northeast Excellence in Multistate Research Award nominations

• NE2501: Harnessing Chemical Ecology to Address Agricultural Pest and Pollinator Priorities (one nomination received)

  • This is a Multidisciplinary group with representatives from chemistry, biology, weed science, and data science involved.

  • The group has been examining metabolites and quantifying residues to address the need for effective alternatives to insecticides.

  • The project continues to strengthen industry relationships as it approaches ten years of activity.

  • If the work of NE2501 is adopted widely by IPM programs, it could be highly effective.

  • Extramural funding leveraged:$7M in grants have been obtained from diverse sources (including USDA NIFA and NIH).

  • Published work of this group has been featured in PNAS, Nature, and Science.

  • The project has been active for ten years and may be on the cusp of making a significant impact on the industry.

• NE2231: Collaborative Potato Breeding and Variety Development Activities to Enhance Farm Sustainability in the Eastern US (two nominations received)

  • NE institutions have been growing state-specific potato varieties and shipping them to other states to evaluate tolerance to different stressors.

  • The NE2231 team has been identifying market opportunities for different varieties of potatoes.

  • This is a self-described “Small but mighty” project with big industry impact and is highly representative of Northeast agriculture.

  • Varieties from this project are grown across 120k acres, yielding $327M.

  • Industry collaborators range from seed companies to potato chip manufacturers.

  • Cornell PI Walt DeJong has been highly successful and his work has been featured in the public-facing press.

• The OED will circulate the NE2501 and NE2231 nominations, along with the Science and Techonlogy Committee’s award evaluation rubric to the Directors for review and decision making electronically following the meeting.

• [Informational item] Other national award programs in 2026:Research Innovation Award of Excellence (early/mid/late career), Excellence in Leadership (Margaret Smith was suggested on the floor).

  • The OED will circulate the calls for nominations for Leadership and Research Innovation awards to Directors.

 

Leading in a “pay to play” academic ecosystem

• The directors dipped their toes as Rick introduced the “pay to play” topic

• This conversation will continue at a future meeting.

 

The meeting on March 18 adjourned at 12:04 pm Eastern Time.