Accelerating Vermont Food Hub Development and Collaboration with Supply Network Analysis
Community Partner: Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund
̽̽ Partners: Spatial Analysis Lab, Dept. of Community Development and Applied Economics
Amount: $159,428 (Partnership Grant)
Developing our local and regional supply chains will remove structural barriers for regional food infrastructure and supply chain development in Vermont and the Northeast. This strategy involves stakeholder engagement across the supply chain, mapping and spatially analyzing infrastructure assets and needs, building and vetting a pipeline of high impact projects with technical experts, structuring, coordinating, and securing funding and financing on behalf of those projects, and providing ongoing project development and operational support through business coaching services.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Regenerative Agriculture
African Diaspora Foodways Institute of Vermont
Community Partner: Clemmons Family Farm
̽̽ Partners: ̽̽ Extension, Dept. of Nutrition and Food Sciences
Amount: $250,000 (Partnership Grant)
Clemmons Family Farm will plan and develop an African Diaspora Foodways Institute. Up to twelve Vermont-based African diaspora culinary artists and farmers will receive professional development, create business plans, and use Clemmons Farm as a business incubator. This initiative will help grow their businesses and serve as a pilot to diversify Vermont’s food and tourism sectors.
Primary Region: Chittenden County
Focus Areas: Regenerative Agriculture, Community Schools, Healthy Ecosystems
Climate Jobs Campaign - Cultivating a Diverse and Inclusive Green Workforce
Community Partner: Vermont Energy Action Network
̽̽ Partner: Public Communication Program in the Dept. of Community Development and Applied Economics
Amount: $10,000 (Capacity Grant)
Vermont needs to train thousands of Vermonters with the skills to electrify our transportation sector, install clean energy solutions, weatherize homes, build net zero commercial buildings, and sustainably manage our working lands, forests and waterways. This project will build on the work of the broad multi-sectoral Climate Workforce Coalition coordinated by Energy Action Network and seeks to deepen ties with ̽̽ professors and students in this work.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Resilient Energy Systems, Healthy Ecosystems
A Medicine to Help Dairy Farms
NEK Biosciences is developing CorioGraft wound healing gel more effectively heal wounds from which dairy cows often suffer; wounds that can be dangerous for cows and very costly for farmers. This grant is supporting NEK Bioscience's partnerships with several ̽̽ departments to further develop the scientific and business foundations for CorioGraft.
Community-Based Organization to Foster Rural Immigration
Community Partner: Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation
̽̽ Partner: Dept. of Geography & Geosciences
Amount: $10,000 (Capacity Grant)
To plan and establish a community-based organization to support new American community that is resettling in the region.
Primary Region: Brattleboro (Windham County)
Focus Areas: Policy & Governance
Every Day Counts: Leveraging Cross-Sector Solutions to Improve School Attendance and Advance Health and Educational Equity in Rural Vermont
Community Partners: The school / healthcare partnerships for this program include:
- Gifford HealthCare / Orange Southwest School District
- Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital / St. Johnsbury School District
- Monarch Maples Pediatrics / Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union
- South Royalton Health Center / White River Valley Supervisory Union
̽̽ Partners: Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (Larner College of Medicine), Catamount Community Schools Collaborative (CCSC)
Amount: $250,000 (Partnership Grant)
This program will provide learning opportunities and curated online resources for Vermont’s educational and health practitioners regarding relevant data, evidence-based interventions and bright spots from VT’s rural communities to support attendance and youth wellbeing. Includes exploration of blended funding streams, including Medicaid and state and federal investments in Community Schools and school-based health services.
Primary Region: Caledonia, Franklin, and Orange Counties
Focus Areas: Community Schools, Access to Health Care in Rural Areas, Policy and Governance
FOREST - Flexible Optimization for Reliable Electrification and Sustainable Transition
Community Partner: Vermont Electric Cooperative
̽̽ Partner: College of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences
Amount: $250,000 (Partnership Grant)
This research will provide data-driven visibility and intelligent orchestration into distributed energy resources to inform decisions about deferring or eliminating up to $80 million in capital investments needed to support electrification of heating and transportation.
Primary Region: Statewide; pilots in South Hero, South Alburgh, and Glover (Grand Isle and Orleans Counties)
Focus Areas: Resilient Energy Systems
Improving Access to Best Practice Asthma Care Among Vermont's Rural Schoolchildren
Community Partners: Vermont State School Nurses Association, Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Vermont Child Health Improvement Program, Vermont State Asthma Program at the Vermont Department of Health, school liaisons from the VDH Office for Local Health, Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB)
̽̽ Partner: Larner College of Medicine, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Amount: $10,000 (Capacity Grant)
We propose an innovative collaboration among faculty and students, community partners, primary and specialty care clinicians, and parents of children with asthma in Vermont’s rural schools. The collaborative effort will improve access to essential healthcare for children with asthma in rural areas and create a healthier ecosystem for learning in rural community schools.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Healthy Ecosystems, Community Schools, Access to Health Care in Rural Areas
Instilling Resiliency in Vermont Agriculture Through Farmer-led Research and Implementation of Regenerative Practices
Community Partners: Franklin-Grand Isle Watershed Alliance, Connecticut River Farmers Watershed Alliance, Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition
̽̽ Partner: ̽̽ Extension
Amount: $249,807 (Partnership Grant)
Develop an On-Farm Research Network in collaboration with the state’s three farmer-led watershed groups. The goal will be to evaluate regenerative and climate resilient practices across a multitude of environments to gain information on their impacts on financial and environmental sustainability.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Regenerative Agriculture
Maple Syrup Quality Testing Lab at ̽̽ Extension
Community Partner: VT Maple Sugar Makers Association
̽̽ Partner: ̽̽ Extension Maple Program
Amount: $199,942 (Partnership Grant)
̽̽ Extension Maple Program seeks funding to establish capacity for testing pure maple syrup for essentials elements of quality: Color, Clarity Density and Flavor. Based on existing and successful labs for testing soil fertility and identification of plant diseases, the new testing lab would offer private individuals a resource to have their syrup tested for alignment with Grade A standards.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Healthy Ecosystems
Microbots for Environmental Remediation
Community Partner: Applied Research Associates, Inc.
̽̽ Partner: College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
Amount: $10,000 (Capacity Grant)
Applied Research Associates will work collaboratively with ̽̽ to develop a microbot environmental remediation strategy that can be used to remove microplastics from ecosystems.
Primary Region: Randolph (White River Valley/Orange County)
Focus Areas: Regenerative Agriculture, Healthy Ecosystems
Prehospital Vermont EMS Buprenorphine Treatment (PREVENT/SOS-VT)
Community Partner: Vermont Dept. of Health - Division of Emergency Preparedness, Response & Injury Prevention
̽̽ Partner: Larner College of Medicine
Amount: $250,000 (Partnership Grant)
Builds on PREVENT protocol (on-site delivery of medically-assisted treatment to jumpstart recovery) piloted in Burlington and Bennington. Establishing a statewide Learning Collaborative to enhance EMS opioid response programs across Vermont, with a strong focus on rural communities.
Primary Region: St. Johnsbury, Hartford, Springfield, Rutland, St. Albans, Williston (Caledonia, Windsor, Rutland, Franklin, and Chittenden Counties). Statewide impact.
Focus Areas: Access to Health Care in Rural Areas
***
related to this project.
Rural Collaboration Network Assessment and Recommendations
Community Partner: Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development
̽̽ Partner: Center for Rural Studies
Amount: $250,000 (Partnership Grant)
This initiative will work closely with ̽̽, state agencies, and Technical Assistance service providers to create actionable recommendations for an integrated approach to delivering rural technical assistance to Vermont’s towns.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Policy & Governance
Seeding ̽̽’s capacity to develop a statewide Mesonet that translates water research to community emergency preparedness
Community Partner: State of Vermont
̽̽ Partner: Water Resources Institute
Amount: $217,596 (Partnership Grant)
A statewide Mesonet that integrates ̽̽’s monitoring infrastructure that acts as a “hub and spoke model” would support research to understand the threat of melting snow and high precipitation in mountainous areas, supporting communities’ work to become more resilient to extreme weather events. This project would build the case for creating this Mesonet to translate research into local action.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Regenerative Agriculture, Community Schools, Transit & Housing Solutions, Resilient Energy Systems, Healthy Ecosystems
***
This article provides interesting background & context for this project.
Examining the Possible Use of Rural Libraries as Telehealth Hubs
Rural Vermont communities face persistent barriers to healthcare access. Libraries in these communities offer a promising solution by acting as places where people could access telehealth services. This project is evaluating the feasibility of this idea.
Water Resources Workforce Development
Community Partner: Vermont Rural Water Association
̽̽ Partners: Water Resources Institute, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
Amount: $10,000 (Capacity Grant)
Vermont Rural Water Association (VRWA), a nonprofit that provides training and technical assistance to drinking water and wastewater systems, seeks to establish a partnership with ̽̽’s Water Resources Institute (̽̽ WRI) to implement targeted workforce development initiatives.
Primary Region: Statewide
Focus Areas: Healthy Ecosystems