Report of the Priorities Committee - January 05, 2004

As per our charge, members of the Priorities Committee have communicated via email to develop procedures to identify priority areas for SRPMC funding. Given the short time period before this year's RFA, we have agreed upon an interim recommendation for the upcoming 2004 RFA (see below), but the committee members feel that further discussions will be needed to develop a plan for selecting priority areas for SRPMC funding in the future. Our recommendations for the 2004 SRPMC RFA are as follows:

Given the recent change in SRPMC venue and the short time period before publication of the SRPMC Request for Applications (RFA), we recommend an interim approach for the 2004 SRPMC RFA. For the upcoming 2004 RFA, the Priorities Committee recommends that the RFA should indicate that project directors (PDs) must fully justify their projects based on relevance and importance to the Southern Region, and that successful projects must demonstrate stakeholder involvement in project planning. Stakeholder input may be documented by reference to priorities listed in PMSPs or other relevant databases (cited in the RFA), or by letters from growers/industry, commodity groups and/or non-governmental organizations.

The Priorities Committee further recommends that the SRPMC review panel be comprised of people representing expertise appropriate to the scope of the proposals submitted, and also that the panel be representative of diverse backgrounds, including research/extension, the agricultural industry, and non-governmental and/or consumer advocacy organizations. Projects should be prioritized for funding based on technical merit and relevancy to regional or state pest management needs. A point scale with maximum available points for various categories should be developed for use by the review panel (e.g., addresses a stakeholder identified need, approach and methods, competency of project team, etc).

Respectfully submitted,
Geoff Zehnder, SRPMC Priorities Committee Chair

SRPMC Priorities Committee Members; John Aselage, Tom Fuchs, Larry Elworth, Ethan Schaffer