Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this proposal is to request a…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this proposal is to request a financial support to help US in organizing the 2024 joint national workshop on sustainable development of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) expected to be held in charleston, SC on july 9-12, 2024. This is a series of CEA meetings organized by the joint committee of the united states department of agriculture (USDA), the department of energy (DOE) and the national aeronautics and space administration (NASA) starting from the 2018 inaugural meeting at USDA in washington D.C., followed by an extraordinarily successful meeting held at the biosphere 2 in arizona in 2019 and a virtual meeting in 2021. The most recent meeting was held on the campus of university of toledo in june 2023 with over 120 registered participants. IT was decided to make this series of meetings as an annual event and charleston, SC was elected to host the fifth meeting in 2024. The USDA-ARS, U.S. Vegetable laboratory in collaboration with clemson university will serve as local organizers. The proposed 2024 joint nation workshop on CEA would further the federal government's mission, with the goal to help the struggling U.S. CEA industry recovery to be a stronger and sustainable food production system. We expect to have 100 participants to attend this national meeting in 2024, with two days of intensive scientific presentations, one day of educational field tour and a half day discussion to develop a coordinated agricultural project (cap) grant proposal. Expected outcomes of this meeting are to generate a workshop report to offer a comprehensive overview on the current state of CEA industry in the U.S., name the challenges, opportunities and needs for research and organize a team of scientists in developing a future cap grant. This conference grant is related to the program area priority on foundational knowledge of sustainable agricultural systems (code A1102) to generate public information on CEA knowledge and technology to support stakeholders in the U.S.