Research Funding Available for Projects with China Agricultural University

 

Applications for the second round of funding for a unique collaborative effort between the University of Georgia and China Agricultural University are now being accepted.

 

“We began this collaboration in 2018 with six teams of researchers, each with a principal investigator from both China Agricultural University and UGA,” said Amrit Bart, director of the Office of Global Programs in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

 

“Because these collaborations are designed for projects that produce data within 12 months, they provide an ideal way for researchers to lay the groundwork necessary to secure additional grants in the future,” said Bart, noting that the criteria for the grants require that each proposal provide “evidence that it contributes to key societal challenges and fits with and complements the wider multidisciplinary research portfolios across CAU and UGA.”

 

“We’re fortunate to have alumni who are on the CAU faculty, which is ranked fourth in global rankings of agricultural universities,” said Bart. “There are a number of research areas at our two institutions that are complementary. Collaborating provides the opportunity for findings that are far more significant than might be accomplished at either institution alone. It also builds international relationships.”

 

Projects funded last year included a collaboration between Jason Wallace, a UGA assistant professor of crop and soil sciences, and Dingming Kang, a CAU agronomy professor, who is teasing apart how bacteria, fungi and other microbes found living in and on corn affects the crop’s response to various stressors, such as cold, heat and drought.

 

“Dr. Kang has been exploring the impact of various seed treatments on corn’s early-season cold tolerance,” Wallace explained. “In our collaboration, my lab is performing the data analysis on samples Dr. Kang has collected in four different corn-growing areas of China. We are trying to identify specific microbes that may play a role in how well corn germinates, especially when it has to deal with stressors like heat and cold.”

 

CAES Dean Sam Pardue accompanied Bart and several other administrators on a trip to CAU in the fall as part of a midterm review of the project.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.