1862-1890 Collaboration

Sandra Sardenelli, IPM coordinator from the University of Maryland, knew that there was an audience in Maryland that her program needed to seek out for contacts, needs and resource assessment. She knew that the state’s 1890 land grant university, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, had a designated IPM representative and also knew that this contact reached stakeholders in often underserved areas. Wondering if both land grant programs could join forces to reach a broader range of clientele, Sandra eagerly looked forward to the 1890-1862 Land Grant conference and planning sessions.  On September 11 and 12, she got her opportunity to meet Stephan Tubene from the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, 1890 Land Grant IPM Representative, and they both left with a project idea on paper.

Sponsored by the Southern Region IPM Center and held in Indianapolis on September 11-12, the 1890-1862 IPM Collaboration Forum was the first step toward introducing IPM coordinators from 1862 land grant universities to their counterparts at the 1890 land grant universities. The 1890 universities populate all of the southern region states, with a few outside the region, including Maryland, Delaware and Missouri. While a few representatives knew or had worked with their counterparts at the other university, many had never spoken to the other or even knew what the other program entailed.

The forum had several objectives: to introduce everyone to their university counterparts and to talk about ways to form collaborations between universities. Participants discussed what they could offer a partnership, what they needed from a partnership and why partnerships were difficult to form in many cases.

Many issues surfaced from discussions at this forum, including the need for more communication, the difficulty in combining audiences that had very little in common into one collaboration, and the ever-present need for new funding sources.

At the end of the conference, everyone had a chance to ask for a commitment from the IPM Centers, CSREES and EPA, as well as make a commitment of their own to begin pursuing a relationship with their partner university. This Web site is the fruit of those discussions and the beginning of what we hope will be a useful communication tool for the 1890s and the 1862s.