NORTHEAST REGIONAL CENTER FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT (NERCRD) FY2024

The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD) at Penn State University, seeks to enhance the capacity of Land Grant Universities (LGUs) to foster regional prosperity and rural development. We accomplish this through research and partnerships with federal and private funding agencies and stakeholder organizations and connecting them with the LGU system. NERCRD also serves as a regional hub linking research faculty and Extension professionals across state lines. Rural areas continue to face population and farm loss, as well as economic and demographic change and lingering disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic.This proposal builds on the Center's previous portfolio of work and reflects emerging priorities identified by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and approved by the Board of Directors (BOD) during the 2023 virtual annual meeting. In addition, the proposal incorporates USDA-NIFA goals and outreach efforts that will be facilitated by the newly filled position of Associate Director. The TAC reiterated the importance of the Associate Director position in its deliberations and recommendations to the BOD. The report also reflects results of the NIFA-commissioned Northeast Listening Sessions Report (Entsminger et al., 2023), the importance of which was reaffirmed by the TAC and which inform the regional community development cohort meetings convened by the Executive Director of the Northeast Extension Directors. The TAC pointed out (TAC 2023, slide 9) that 'more needs to be done to celebrate and extend the impacts of the Center's work in the region.' Importantly, the TAC advised that the Center consider its 1. Capacity Building and Facilitation priority area as tactical, and the other two areas, 2. Economic Development, Resilience and Innovation, and 3. Food Systems, Nutrition Security and Agriculture as being strategic. The proposal reflects the 'Northeast Agenda' prepared by the Northeast Research Association (NERA, 2023). Cross-cutting themes also continue to be important for the Northeast, including the rural/urban interface and infrastructure development. These cross-cutting issues naturally intersect with the three broad priority areas identified above. Tensions (conflict) and opportunities across the urban/rural interface are arguably more pronounced in the NE than in any of the other regions, even as densely settled urban agglomerations co-exist near rural amenities that offer numerous opportunities for recreation. The infrastructure theme likewise cuts across development, food systems and Extension delivery capacity, starting with access to knowledge but extending to cloud computing in support of innovation and exports as well as both selling and procuring goods and services. Climate related topics arise in all of these issues. Indeed, one of the recommendations from the national listening sessions report is to 'integrate[d] climate-related education into all Extension program areas' (Entsminger et al., 2023, p.27). The TAC recommended the Center focus on NE specific initiatives as it chooses new opportunities, or coordinates on national initiatives with the other RRDCs (for example in the surveys involving caregiving).Engagement and Representation: The Center's BOD and TAC both include members from 1890 institutions, and we seek to maintain membership levels in proportion to the region's stakeholder distribution. We continue to focus on questions of rural access, including to healthcare, financial capital, educational materials and broadband. Under the leadership of TAC Chair Heather Stephens (WVU), the TAC has changed its quarterly meetings to allow for more targeted engagement with the Center. We also plan to engage the region's three 1890 institutions more closely in specific projects, including in addressing farm growth and decline.