Addressing the challenges of sustainable agriculture research and extension at land-grant universities: Radially organized teams at Wisconsin

AbstractResearchers at land-grant universities are under pressure to widen their research objectives, which requires them to expand their inquiry from a disciplinary base to a systems level, to include farmers and nonuniversity organizations as research collaborators, and to communicate with broader sectors of the public, such as consumers and policy makers. However, there are few rewards for scientists who undertake long-term, systems based research. An approach that brings together multidisciplinary, multiprofession teams using a radial model of organization has successfully addressed these challenges in Wisconsin. A small “hub” manages the team, with the remaining participants linked to component taskforces or “satellite” projects. This enables research to be done on both multidisciplinary and related single-discipline questions. Radially organized teams can attract diverse people with different time commitments and reward incentives. The research meets the criteria of public and academic audiences alike. For innovative research and extension efforts like radial teams to reach their full potential, larger institutional changes are needed within the land-grant system and professional agricultural societies.