Description of award and activities to be performed: the aces office of research and agricultural experiment station enables and encourages faculty creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration to…

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded the University of Illinois $11.34 million on October 1, 2025, under the Payments to Agricultural Experiment Stations Under the Hatch Act (CFDA 10.203), a formula grant supporting research conducted by the institution's ACES Office of Research and Agricultural Experiment Station.

The award funds capacity investments in seed funding, equipment, research infrastructure, training opportunities, and strategic initiatives enabling faculty interdisciplinary collaboration across five research areas. Community Involvement, Leadership, and Vitality activities examine rural population change and adaptation during health and economic stress, rural youth risk decision-making and developmental resilience, and adolescent interpersonal relationships. Economic and Workforce Development research addresses agricultural and rural markets—including access, pricing, trading dynamics, and policy issues—and the economic incentives for adopting new technologies, crops, and practices and their implications for land use, farm profitability, and environmental outcomes. Safe, Healthy Environments and Behaviors studies cover nutrition including lipid absorption during aging and intestinal microbiome roles in personalized diet responses; the social environment's impact on wellness through economic uncertainty and crime exposure on child development; and cancer and diseases including thermally abused frying oil's role in late-stage cancer progression, prenatal development during maternal influenza infection, and medical imaging for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease detection. Effective Agricultural Production and Food Systems research addresses field crop improvement.

Period of performance extends from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2027, with place of performance in Urbana, Illinois.

Description of award and activities to be performed: the aces office of research and agricultural experiment station enables and encourages faculty creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration to advance the mission of the college and the broader mission of our land grant university. We accomplish this through capacity fund investments in seed funding, equipment, research infrastructure, training opportunities, and strategic initiatives. Deliverables and expected outcomes: activities focus on five critical issues. 1. Community involvement, leadership, and vitality- we study: rural population change and adaptation in the face of health and economic shock and stressors, rural youth risk-taking decision-making to transform the developmental trajectory from vulnerability to resiliency, and the influence of connectedness and interpersonal relationships in adolescents. 2. Economic and workforce development- we study: agricultural and rural markets, including access, pricing and trading dynamics and legal and policy issues; the economic incentives for adopting new agricultural technologies, crops, and practices and their implications for land use, farm profitability, consumer and producers and the environment; creating resilient economic development for rural populations. 3. Safe, healthy environments and behaviors- we study: nutrition, including how aging disrupts the body's ability to absorb lipids, and a study of the role of the intestinal microbiome in personalized metabolic responses to diet; the social environment's impact on wellness, including how economic uncertainty and exposure to crime influence child development; cancer and diseases, including the role of thermally abused frying oil on late-stage cancer progression, prenatal growth and development during maternal influenza infection and the use of new types of medical imaging to detect atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. 4. Effective agricultural production and food systems- we study: field crop improvement, including phenotypic selection, molecular breeding and genome editing; plant protection, with activities centered on weed management, plant pathology, and entomology; the accurate representation and measurement of agronomic and horticultural cropping systems under field conditions; next-generation approaches to crop research employing remotely-sensed field data, mining global data sets, and developing advanced genomic prediction models; and animal and veterinary research to improve the efficiency, safety and security of animal production; and the development of new food products. 5. Thriving natural resources- we study: the response of soil and water quality to management practices, conservation and management of terrestrial and aquatic animals, and ECO systems and their ability to provision services under development and management conditions. Intended beneficiaries: we seek input from diverse groups and individuals to ensure our programs remain socially relevant. These groups include students (the next generation of professionals, scientists and educators), fellow researchers and extension specialists, growers, commodity groups, community O rganizations, lawmakers, and industry representatives. We identify stakeholders in illinois focusing on local issues, and beyond the state focusing on issues of regional or national concern. We do not expect any subrecipient activities.