The college of agricultural sciences at penn state will provide comprehensive support to pennsylvania residents through the pennsylvania agricultural experiment station (AES) and penn state…

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded The Pennsylvania State University $22.68 million on October 1, 2025, under the Smith-Lever Extension Funding program (CFDA 10.511), a formula grant supporting cooperative agricultural extension activities at land-grant institutions.

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences will deliver comprehensive support to Pennsylvania residents through the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station and Penn State Extension. Work includes translational research and science-based program delivery responsive to stakeholder needs, internationally relevant fundamental research generating baseline data for future problem-solving, and enhanced communication of programs to new audiences. Faculty and staff will leverage federal base funding against additional funding sources to conduct research, education, and extension programs addressing agricultural challenges including rising energy costs, weather extremes, population growth, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and labor shortages. The College will develop a conceptual framework based on agricultural sustainability science, integrating natural and social sciences to inform practice and policy for productive working landscapes, healthy watersheds, and resilient economies.

The award runs through September 30, 2030, with place of performance in State College, Pennsylvania.

The college of agricultural sciences at penn state will provide comprehensive support to pennsylvania residents through the pennsylvania agricultural experiment station (AES) and penn state extension PSE activities. We will be responsive to stakeholder needs through translational research and delivery of science?based programs to clientele. We will also conduct internationally relevant fundamental research that generates baseline data to solve future problems and actively seek new and better ways to communicate our programs to new audiences. Our faculty and staff, supported by federal base funding, will effectively leverage this investment against many other funding sources to conduct programs of the highest caliber. We are committed to excellence in research, educating the next generation of agricultural professionals and citizens, and promoting life?long learning among the citizens of pennsylvania. Our college's mission is clear: the mission of the college of agricultural sciences is to discover, integrate, translate, and disseminate knowledge to enhance the food and agricultural system, natural resources and environmental stewardship, and economic and social wellbeing, thereby improving the lives of people in pennsylvania, the nation, and the world. Agriculture faces challenges of rising energy costs, weather extremes, an expanding human population, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, and labor shortages. The covid?19 pandemic added to the challenges disruptions to food chains, workforce challenges, impacts on youth education, and business interruptions. We must address these issues to mitigate future widespread disruptions that impact all of society. Activities: to help meet these challenges, we are developing a conceptual framework based on the science of agricultural sustainability defined as the integration of natural and social sciences to inform practice and policy for productive, working landscapes, healthy watersheds, and resilient economies. This innovative approach to agricultural research, engagement, and education centers on the impacts and synergies of contiguous rural and urban landscapes. Penn state extension provides access to face to face and online science based education to our customers to help them address problems and take advantage of opportunities for improvement and innovation. We make a difference locally through focused engagement and, more widely, to customers connecting in the digital landscape. Initiatives ensure the stability of the food system in the commonwealth and our efforts to provide a broad based online learning platform for noncredit programming and digital education. The work of AES and PSE in our college is built on the three integrated pillars of intensification, resilience, and regeneration of agricultural landscapes as solutions to some of the most vexing problems confronting pennsylvania and similar mosaic landscapes worldwide. Our critical issues capture the systems approach we identified as essential for generating impact. They cut across disciplines, uniting our research efforts with our extension education capacity. This interdisciplinary philosophy has reinforced the natural tendency of our faculty and extension educators to work cooperatively to solve problems. Coupled WI TH the joint research extension appointments of many of our college faculty, our work, as represented in our plan of work, will effectively unite fundamental knowledge with practical solutions delivered to stakeholders, empowering them to address important and EME rging issues using relevant science?based resources. The net result will be a tangible benefit in economic prosperity and quality of life for pennsylvania citizens.