A few weeks ago, Waterborne shared a news alert with you surrounding the National Academies' release of its report, "Fulfilling the Public Mission of the Land-Grant System.” The report was in direct response to recent challenges to higher education’s role within research. It emphasizes that land-grant institutions were originally intended to gain and apply knowledge to support the public good, particularly in agriculture and other “practical lifeways”. The crux of the challenge is whether or not research, teaching, and extension are of the public’s concern.

The challenges to the Land-Grant System hit home. In recent years, Waterborne has secured funding from state and federal sources to provide technical assistance to farmers and ranchers across the country. Similarly, we have pursued studies that allow our wide body of expertise to serve agricultural communities worldwide. Many of our recent ventures have, in fact, embodied the three-pillared mission of the land-grant system (research, education, and extension) by providing landowners with the resources to re-envision their farms and ranches as areas where they can implement agricultural best management strategies. 

Furthermore, our interdisciplinary team has worked diligently to embody the tenets of the land-grant mandate of engaging with and having a physical presence in our communities. Specifically, our outreach specialists serve as a liaison between our technical experts generating the scientific data and the farmers and ranchers who may benefit. This involves creating trusted relationships and engaging in constructive conversations in our communities, a time-intensive process that is worth every second of effort. As we move forward into an increasingly “market environment”, Waterborne will continue to strive towards built-relationships that encourage long-term, structured collaboration for the common good of our communities. 

However, the report also emphasized the importance of adapting to the needs of the public in a rapidly changing world where every individual can access to information at their fingertips, instantly. We at Waterborne, therefore, have the challenge of answering “so what?”. When people could easily pull out their phone to ask their favorite search engine or AI platform, why should we bother generating a tool that helps the public? The answer is rooted in the mission of the land grant institutions and is a tenant that we hold true at Waterborne: effective innovation arises from meaningful external relationships with people, allowing our services to deliver on public need. 

Therefore, we incorporate stakeholders into our process: from project concept to deliverable dissemination, Waterborne works to make sure that the constituents we serve are an integral part of the lifecycle of our work. Waterborne staff have integrated stakeholder meetings and tech demonstrations into our workflow, ensuring that the end-users of our work have a “say” in the final product. And as land grant institutions may be reenvisioning their public value in the current societal context, Waterborne is stepping forward into this new era of information with people at the center of our “so what”.