Alignment with Penn State's Strategic Plan
This College plan operationalizes Penn State's institutional strategic goals within the context of the College of Agricultural Sciences. Our investments directly support:
- Enhancing student success through transformative, experiential learning rooted in real‑world environments, farms, fields, forests, and communities that nurture curiosity, leadership, and lifelong learning. By providing personalized support and meaningful industry engagement, we prepare students to discover their potential, pursue purposeful careers or further education, and contribute positively to society.
- Growing (inter)disciplinary research excellence by leveraging our diverse scientific excellence, unique infrastructure (farms, fields, forests, labs), and cross-cutting research themes in the context of solving problems and creating opportunities.
- Increasing land-grant impact through science-based, human-centered, Extension programming, built on community partnerships, with the singular goal of translation of research into practice to solve problems and capture opportunities.
- Fostering access and equity by expanding awareness of and access to agricultural careers, closing achievement gaps, and building inclusive communities to allow everyone to achieve their greatest potential, we will realize our mission to educate citizens who will contribute to a thriving democracy.
- Transforming internal operations through high-functioning, collaborative teams using technology to achieve administrative efficiencies and build productive and modern farm operations that provide state-of-the-art training and testing environments.
Cross-Cutting Themes from Departmental Strategic Plans
Analysis of our nine departmental plans (see Appendix A for departmental summaries) highlighted eight interconnected themes that will define our strategic research, teaching, and Extension investments:
Student Access, Success & Career Readiness
Consistently meeting learners where they are (credit and non-credit; matriculated and World Campus), improving, expanding, and diversifying our recruitment and support of undergraduate and graduate students—with greater recruitment from urban and suburban areas (building pipeline); renewing our programs- ensuring degrees lead to career satisfaction; developing our technology—leading Penn State in ensuring AI-fluency for career readiness; elevating our people—developing the interpersonal skills required for the next generation of leaders.
Example departmental priorities: Expanding and scaling experiential learning (internships/externships, study abroad, lab/field courses, industry interaction); continuous curriculum review and revision with relevant industry input; flexible curriculum meeting evolving career opportunities and student needs; data-driven advising linked to real-world careers; more resources for need-based scholarships; integrated student success support; diverse talent recruitment; achievement gap elimination.
Resilient Agricultural and Natural Resource Systems & Communities
Enabling agriculture, agribusiness and communities to respond, adapt, and thrive (increased resilience) in an environment of rapid change and increased competition, balancing our efforts across the Commonwealth while recognizing our global impact and our unique role as the sole land-grant university in Pennsylvania.
Example departmental priorities: Invasive species management; drought- and flood-tolerant plants; engineering resilience traits in agronomic crops; diversified and value-added agricultural systems; watershed management; forest ecosystem services; wildlife conservation; climate adaptation strategies; ecosystem restoration; substance-use challenges in rural communities.
Penn State Extension, Commonwealth Connection & Land-Grant Impact
Serving as "The People's College" with Extension professionals in every county across the Commonwealth; expanding workforce preparation, training/retraining utilizing an integrated microcredentialing platform; leveraging statewide assets and partnerships; building our online presence to lead the nation in AI-enabled Extension decision support through our recently launched TilvaTM tool.
Example departmental priorities: 4-H/FFA as pipelines for degree programs; Extension volunteer engagement (Master Gardeners/Master Watershed Stewards, 4-H); partnerships with Commonwealth campuses; land-grant value measurement and communication; Extension-Research feedback loops; AI-enabled decision support (Tilva™); Extension program adoption; stakeholder engagement; youth development
Technology for Agriculture and Living Systems (TALiS)
Applying technology—including AI/ML as it applies to robotics and automation, biotechnology, sensing/modeling/prediction—to Pennsylvania's diverse agriculture, food, and natural resource sectors and our variable landscapes and markets; emphasizing tech that delivers economic benefits, and programs to help adopt technology through our Extension service and bridge innovation gaps through lasting partnerships.
Example departmental priorities: Precision agriculture technologies; machine learning applications; geospatial analysis; farm management software; sensor networks; AI-powered Extension tools; digital platforms; robotics and automation; agricultural engineering innovations; phenotyping platforms; precision animal health; decision support systems
One Health Systems
Integrating environmental, animal, plant, and human health as interdependent systems through "soil-to-seed-to-plate-to-people" integration (soils, microbes, plants, animals, ecosystems, humans). Expanding our systems-level approach to improving the health and productivity of animals, crops, the environment, and humans.
Example departmental priorities: Soil microbiome and plant health; farm safety, including mental health; microbiome/insect-borne diseases; healthy aging; diet and gut microbiome; food innovation, quality, nutrition, and sensory science; zoonotic diseases; antimicrobial resistance; food safety; vector-borne disease ecology; integrated pest management
Food & Fiber Systems as Engines of Economic Growth
Providing science-based tools for informed decision-making and long-term enterprise viability; emphasizing profitability, efficiency, innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Building economic sustainability concepts into planning—profit now and in the next generation.
Example departmental priorities: Expanding farm business management programs incorporating P&L analysis; agricultural policy analysis; horizon-scanning discovery research; models for short- vs long-run planning and investment; farm transition support/ succession planning; technical skills for beginning farmers; supply chain economics; agribusiness strategy; cooperative development; forest management and forest products capabilities
Three Key Facility Initiatives: Plant Innovation Complex, Regenerative Ag Research and Extension Center, and Student Success Center
Plant Innovation Complex
In the PlantWorks initiative, the College is pursuing a collaborative, interdisciplinary initiative with the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Eberly College of Science designed to deliver a generational transformation in the way Penn State conducts plant science research, teaching, and Extension; creating a truly integrative approach from discovering new knowledge to field-scale phenotyping; connecting innovators across R-T-E and multiple themes; focusing on needs in Pennsylvania, the Northeast, the nation and the globe in that order. At the core of this initiative is the Plant Innovation Complex to be constructed on the current site of the College’s aged greenhouse/headhouse complex on Curtin Road. We plan to fund this initiative through a combination of federal (Research Facilities Act competitive funding), state (Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture matching funds), philanthropy, and College and University funds. We anticipate the needed investment to be between $100 million and $200 million.
Example departmental supporting priorities: Center for Plant Excellence (PDA); research and extension center phenotyping/test hubs; translational research at research and extension centers; controlled environment agriculture; organic and regenerative agriculture research; industry partnerships for plant science innovation; crop production optimization; mushroom production; plant genetics and breeding; sustainable intensification practices; soil health enhancement
Student Success Center
The College will pursue development of an integrated Student Success Center (SSC) as a signature facility initiative. The CoAg Student Success Center will be a one-stop hub to serve undergraduate students and families from first contact in high school through graduation and alumni engagement, seamlessly connecting recruitment, academic advising, career readiness, industry, and other co-curricular experiences supported by the Office for Undergraduate Education. The SSC will physically and programmatically integrate undergraduate programs and advising networks in partnership with Ag Sciences Global to incorporate global learning opportunities, such as education abroad, international agriculture programs, and mission-driven global partnerships that prepare students to address food, health, and environmental challenges worldwide. Functioning in partnership with the Office of Access and Equity, the SSC will integrate academic preparation, student success and wellbeing, and financial resources in an inclusive, welcoming environment that expands access and ensures a strong sense of belonging for students from all backgrounds. We plan to fund this effort primarily through philanthropy. We anticipate investing between $3 million and $5 million.
Regenerative Agriculture Center
The College will build on our faculty expertise in regenerative agriculture in partnership with external stakeholders and co-create a new Regenerative Ag Center on our existing farmland (~120 acres) at Rockview. The Regenerative Ag Center represents a long-term commitment to developing science-based regenerative agriculture solutions for Pennsylvania, the Northeast and the nation. This will include a partnership with the Regenerative Ag Research Foundation and other stakeholder organizations committed to profitable and sustainable agricultural systems that enhance soil health and water quality, integrate plant and animal agricultural systems, restore and support healthy ecosystems, and enable economically viable agricultural production. Initial investment will be funded by internal resource reallocation, competitive grants from federal and state agencies and foundations. Initial costs are anticipated to be between $1 million and $2 million.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) leading to Impact
Entrepreneurship and innovation are drivers of economic development, and the college is expanding efforts to innovate and propel these innovations to the public sector (both for-profit and not-for-profit). We will do this through several integrated initiatives. First, the College will reemphasize the high value we place on E&I by updating our tenure and promotion documents to clearly identify the critical role E&I plays in the faculty portfolio. We will accelerate commercialization and social entrepreneurship through our existing seed funding activities (RAIN grants; Ag Springboard Competition; E&I minor) and develop new approaches to engage faculty and students in E&I. We will encourage a culture of innovation, for example, by building on our newly launched Land Grant Research Impact Fellows (LGRIF) program that honors and rewards faculty who have developed an outstanding track record of using science to solve problems in Pennsylvania, the nation and the world. We will create new incentives to foster an innovative, risk-tolerant culture and expand industry relations by identifying faculty E&I mentors in each academic department and recruiting alumni entrepreneurs to work with our scientists and students. These efforts will focus on developing new technology within the college and through our new Penn State HARVEST consortia to advance food security and resilience in agrifood systems by convening researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and stakeholders from industry and government to catalyze interdisciplinary research and drive the application and diffusion of innovations.
Example departmental priorities: Faculty E&I champions in each academic department; develop processes to accelerate invention disclosures, patent applications, license agreements and spin-off companies; elevate the profile of E&I into promotion and tenure guidance; create more seed funds to overcome investment gaps; partnerships with Penn State E&I ecosystem; pursue an NSF ENGINE grant with our AgInnovation partners in the northeast.
These themes inform investment decisions across all five strategic goals and ensure vertical integration between College and department priorities.
