The College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, is a proud partner in the Agricultural Research Institute.

 

The California State University system has a strong history of accomplishment in agriculture.  The CSU has six campuses which have made large contributions in agricultural research, education and technology transfer: Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo ; Fresno State; Cal Poly, Pomona; Chico State, Cal Poly Humboldt and Cal State Monterey Bay.   The agricultural colleges and departments at these institutions individually and collectively have been lacking in the necessary research matching seed money and capacity-building funds to fully address the industry's  increased demand for CSU new and innovative applied research technology development and transfer services.

In 1999, Governor Gray Davis authorized the inauguration of a multi-million dollar per year program to be set aside from the State Budget for agricultural research and extension on these CSU campuses.  The work was originally dedicated to eight high-priority areas  identified by a collaborative effort of agricultural industry and Federal, State and local governmental agencies and interest groups.

In 2018, as a result of a strategic visioning process, the original priority areas were redefined to a three-tiered system of Issue, Topic, Knowledge Area and Product or Commodity.  This system is closely aligned with the categorizations at USDA.

Total project funding must be matched at least 1:1 by non-CSU funds.  Although the spirit of the initiative is to secure as much external funding in cash as possible, it is allowable to use in-kind contributions to meet a portion of the matching requirement.  It is recommended that not more than 75% of the matching funds come from in-kind contributions.  In practice, the greater the percentage of cash match, the stronger the proposal.

At Cal Poly, there is a strong emphasis on using the ARI to introduce students, both undergraduate and post-graduate, to the research arena.  Our motto is "Learn by Doing" and our students are the ones who benefit the most by applying their skills and knowledge assisting industry and academia in the process of solving some of our most crucial problems in agriculture today.