Hatch multistate funding is provided by USDA/nifa to support research programs in which faculty cooperate across a region or nationally to advance science and solve problems that concern more than one…

Hatch multistate funding is provided by USDA/nifa to support research programs in which faculty cooperate across a region or nationally to advance science and solve problems that concern more than one state. In this way, technological opportunities and complex problem-solving activities which are beyond the scope of a single institution, can be approached in a more efficient and comprehensive way. Allowable activities are broad and include research on all aspects of agriculture, including soil and water conservation and use; plant and animal production, protection, and health; processing, distribution, safety, marketing, and utilization of food and agricultural products; forestry, including range management and range products; multiple use of forest rangelands, and urban forestry; aquaculture; home economics and family life; human nutrition; rural and community development; sustainable agriculture; molecular biology; and biotechnology. At umass amherst, the funds associated with the federal hatch multistate award are used to support student employment and to provide operating funds for research related expenditures (research equipment, materials, supplies, and travel) by faculty investigators who employ a variety of methods appropriate to their discipline and specific program of research. Hatch multistate funds are administered by the massachusetts agricultural experimentation station, a unit of the center for agriculture, food and the environment (cafe), within the umass college of natural sciences. Cafe allocates a hatch multistate funds to nine academic departments and the umass cranberry station. Academic department heads allocate funds to faculty who work towards objectives identified in specific regional projects that are first reviewed and approved by a regional association of state experiment station directors. Seven of the academic departments that receive hatch funds are in the college of natural sciences (biology, environmental conservation, food science, geosciences, microbiology, stockbridge school of agriculture and veterinary and animal science). One department (resource economics) is in the of social and behavioral sciences and one department (nutrition) is in the school of public health and health sciences.