Lincoln, Neb. —The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources strives to innovate new ways to produce food, fuel, feed and fiber for a rapidly growing world. It is critical to do this through profitable, resilient practices that protect our soil, water and ecosystems and that ensure a high quality of life for those who produce our food.
These goals cannot be reached without collaboration from partners around the world. IANR is committed to both fostering and growing international partnerships, as well as to providing global learning experiences for students. To better align with IANR’s core mission areas of teaching research and extension, the staff who had previously been a part of IANR Global are now embedded in the areas they directly impact.
Liana Calegare will now work directly with the Agricultural Research Division to advance global research and capacity-building initiatives. Jon Kerrigan will be a part of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources academic team to focus on global learning in the classroom, global education pathways, and experiential learning that extends our students’ learning beyond Nebraska. Brianne Wolf will work with each of these areas, as well as across the Institute more broadly: connecting, collaborating and communicating with centers, extension, and other internal and external stakeholders.
“The only way to address the wickedly complex challenges we face is a society is through collaboration – here in Nebraska, across the country and around the world,” said Mike Boehm, NU Vice President and Harlan Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “This realignment of IANR Global better positions us to grow collaborations in mission-critical areas across our institute, university and world.”
Through collaboration, IANR strives to prepare students to be successful in a highly connected, globalized world; create relationships and pathways for more trade and economic development for Nebraska producers and attract and retain the world’s best talent and innovation to our state.
“The objective is to build better global citizens. We do not live in a vacuum,” said Tala Awada, associate dean and associate director of the Agricultural Research Division. “If researchers are going to solve issues of importance from a local to global scale, collaboration is one of the most valuable tools in the toolbox. “We act local, but we are part of a global community.”
IANR is committed to innovation in research, education and engagement to improve food, water and nutrition security, enhance sustainability of natural resources, mitigate extreme weather events and climate change, develop innovative and sustainable fuels, improve wellbeing, contribute to economic growth and beyond. Global partnerships have been and will continue to be foundational in these efforts,
“We live in a world that is ever more interconnected and global,” said Tiffany Heng-Moss, Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. “We are focused on preparing our graduates to be globally knowledgeable and curious, attuned to diverse perspectives, able to communicate across cultures, and developing their global mindset and inclusive approach to problem solving and innovation.”
Email your questions or ideas related to the future of IANR’s global efforts to ianrglobal@unl.edu.