Helping Vermont’s rural communities thrive—in the face of big challenges brought about by climate change and population shifts—will be the focus of a new institute at ̽̽.
̽̽’s Institute for Rural Partnerships, which will begin its work immediately but will be formally unveiled in the summer at the ̽̽ Innovation Partnership Summit, is made possible by a $9.3 million award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, with leadership and support from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
“Vermont, like all rural states, faces unique challenges that affect such important issues as transit, economic and workforce development, water quality, food supplies, infrastructure, and broadband connectivity,” Leahy said. “̽̽ (̽̽) has long been a key player in the State, forging and expanding partnerships with public and private entities to identify and try to address many of these rural challenges. The Institute for Rural Partnerships at ̽̽ will enable the University to continue to be a leader in the studies of rural challenges not only within Vermont, but the Nation. The Institute will help be a flagship for other states to form such partnerships as a comprehensive means of meeting complex rural challenges across the United States. As Chair of Senate Appropriations, I was proud to support ̽̽ and am excited to see the incredible work that will be done by the University through the establishment of the Institute for Rural Partnerships.”
Under the umbrella of the new institute, as the state’s land-grant university, ̽̽ will bring to bear the combined resources and expertise of multiple ̽̽ entities to help find solutions to the most pressing problems that rural communities are facing—whether it’s a qualified workforce, broadband access, clean water, sustainable energy, suitable housing, food production, supporting more welcoming and inclusive communities, or mitigating the stresses placed on the region’s lakes, rivers and forests.
“The Institute for Rural Partnerships is an ideal realization of ̽̽’s land-grant mission in service to our state,” said university president Suresh Garimella, “Connecting the university’s talented research and innovation experts with promising, motivated groups with big ideas from across the state will deliver valuable impact in all 14 Vermont counties and beyond.
“That we are launching this remarkable institute is a reflection of Senator Leahy’s vision and profound commitment to Vermonters and to ̽̽,” Garimella continued. “The university could not be more proud or more grateful.”
“Vermont remains one of the most rural states in the country,” said ̽̽ Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski, principal investigator for the project and whose office will house the new institute. “Across the country we have seen significant challenges to rural viability. Part of our land-grant mission is to take what we’ve learned and put it to the service of communities and help people meet those challenges.”
Dombrowski said the institute represents a novel approach, a “spin-in” concept, in which the university will serve as a technology park of sorts, where partnerships with community-based groups looking for academic expertise will be seeded and fully supported by the university so they are in a better position to find community-based solutions to rural challenges.
“People will deal more effectively with the inevitable change that’s coming if they have the knowledge base, better data, and strong partnerships that the institute will facilitate,” said Dombrowski. “It’s a way to make a path forward and be part of a viable future, rather than resisting change at all costs.”
̽̽ entities that will be supporting the institute’s efforts include the ̽̽ Office of Engagement, ̽̽ Extension, ̽̽ Innovations, Professional and Continuing Education, the Center for Rural Studies, the Gund Institute for Environment, the Transportation Research Center, Vermont EPSCoR, the Vermont Biomedical Research Network, the Career Center, ̽̽ colleges and schools, and the ̽̽ Foundation’s Corporate and Foundation Relations Office.
The institute aims to serve as a convening space for the understanding of issues and economic and policy opportunities facing rural communities, to fund collaborative research, to incubate emerging partnerships, to support an internship program across the region, and to collaborate with similar institutes being established at the University of Wisconsin and Auburn University in Alabama.
At the heart of the ̽̽ institute will be an Innovation and Research Incubator seed-funding program. It will allocate funding and technical assistance to teams of collaborators comprised of ̽̽ faculty, students/staff, and external partners. The awards will be used to fund research projects, stakeholder engagement initiatives, student internships and service-learning experiences, and business plan development for early-stage start-ups and non-profit businesses working to address rural challenges. Early-stage funding grants of $25,000-$50,000 will help build the partnerships for future seed funding rounds.
The incubator will focus investment in the following Innovative Opportunity areas where ̽̽ has deep expertise: Regenerative Agriculture as an alternative to industrial food production; Connected Community Schools that can deliver high-quality education in remote locations; Transit and Housing Reimagined to address the rural public transportation/affordable housing nexus that discourages rural alternatives to the urban housing crises; Work Reimagined to take advantage of new workplace practices; Communication Reimagined to harness new technologies to de-urbanize high-tech employment opportunities; Healthcare Reimagined to design the next generation of telehealth/remote health delivery; Green Rural Energy to allow new forms of energy to support rural economies; Resilient Ecosystems to promote resiliency in lake and forest ecosystems; and Policy and Governance to support strategies that promote broad participation and ownership of rural community solutions.
A separate $9.5 million USDA grant, secured by Senator Leahy, will allow ̽̽ to renovate the Joseph L. Hills Agricultural Science Building on the ̽̽ campus, where the Institute for Rural Partnerships will be located once work is completed next year. Leahy also secured $11 million of federal funding last year to support ̽̽’s Food Systems Research Center, a collaboration between ̽̽ and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which will also be located in the Hills Building.