Our Core Competencies

Explore our vision for bolstering our capacities and competencies in digital agriculture and advanced analytics through the key pillars of our institutional mission: Teaching, research and engagement.

Teaching

• We aim to develop academic programs and other learning opportunities that will expand, diversify and strengthen our talent pool of students engaged in agriculture and the analytics required to feed a growing population.
• Over time, these opportunities will include microcredentials earned through participation in workshops and training sessions, interdisciplinary DA3 courses, certificate programs, and new transdisciplinary Bachelor of Science and graduate degree programs.
• Instructional activities will be targeted for on-campus and distance students and those in industry seeking professional development. Potential partnership with industry will be explored to develop summer DA3 academies to elevate core competencies of the existing workforce.

Research

• We plan to create an environment where team members are empowered with the tools to better compete for and manage research funding from federal and state grants, as well as industry partnerships and philanthropic gifts.
• We will work with college and unit administration on a framework within which we can grow and sustain faculty participation as activities and initiatives build and evolve over time.
• In the short-term, we will organize a university-wide DA3 Symposium, annual ideation sessions with faculty and stakeholders, participate in faculty hiring committees across colleges, and identify team members to participate in relevant K-State Regional Community Visits.
• We will foster key activities to facilitate innovative ideas and assist in the development of competitive teams, leveraging existing industry partnerships and establishing new intellectural property pathways. The initial focus is to build a community around Digital Agriculture, which requires construction of effective systems and input from interested faculty. The framework will allow us to engage across the university to make an inclusive yet focused system. We envision partnering with the Office of the Vice President for Research to help faculty develop transdisciplinary projects for submission to the GRIP program or helping new faculty establish networks early in their professional careers.

Engagement

• Will will work to expand our digital footprint within rural communities, namely via partnership with the K-State 105 Initiative, to facilitate innovative and entrepreneurial ideas with research-driven expertise as it pertains to Digital Agriculture.
• Our administrative team will help connect businesses with faculty and staff expertise and advance workforce development to propel Digital Agriculture solutions in Kansas.
• Our team includes faculty with Extension appointments facilitating the translation of our science from the research and classroom to every county in Kansas.
• We will develop a strategy to “train the trainers,” which will be implemented from the initial year in collaboration with our agricultural extension agents across the state.
• We will foster partnerships with producers to evaluate their data to address issues on lack of data integration at field level, and we will develop digital tools to improve productivity, socioeconomic,and environmental decision-making.
• Extension professionals will not only be trained in the use of these tools, but they can actively participate in the development to set a new benchmark for a next-generation land grant university.