Land-grant colleges and universities play a crucial role in addressing the complex challenges facing the U.S. agricultural system and global food security. Multidisciplinary collaboration involving a diversity of land-grant institutions has the potential to accelerate scientific progress on those challenges. However, historical and current funding disparities have prevented Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges and Universities from being full partners in multi-institutional collaborations. This report, produced by request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture acting on a congressional directive, examines how enhanced cooperation across the land-grant system could deepen and expand the impact of its agricultural work, which is critical to address evolving industry and environmental challenges, as well as demands from consumers.

The report concludes that many investigators are unaware of potential partners with complementary expertise across the system. The report states that adopting a culture of collaboration could improve the coordination in the land-grant system. Key report recommendations include improving systems and incentives for facilitating academic partnerships, equitably distributing funding across the land-grant system, and enhancing outreach strategies for communicating about the beneficial outcomes of collaborative research.