Steven ShaferAssociate Administrator for National Programs

USDA-ARS

Science for a Growing World

An Update on the

USDA Agricultural Research Servicefor the

National Coalition

for

Food and Agricultural Research

April 7, 2015

Overview of the

Agricultural Research Service

• Agency Leadership

• FY 2016 President’s

Budget

• Two national initiatives

• University partnerships

ARS National ProgramsProgram Planning and Evaluation

• Food Animal

Production

• Animal Health

• Veterinary, Medical,

and Urban

Entomology

• Aquaculture

• Water Availability and

Watershed

Management

• Global Change, Soils,

and Emissions

• Biorefining

• Agricultural and

Industrial Byproducts

• Pasture, Forage and

Rangeland Systems

• Agricultural System

Competitiveness and

Sustainability

Animal Production &

Protection (~15%)

Natural Resources &

Sustain. Agric. Sys. (~20%)

• Plant Genetic

Resources,

Genomics and

Genetic

Improvement

• Plant Biological &

Molecular

Processes

• Plant Diseases

• Crop Protection &

Quarantine

• Crop Production

Crop Production &

Protection (~35%)

• Human Nutrition

• Food Safety

• Quality and

Utilization of

Agricultural

Products

Nutrition, Food Safety

& Quality (~30%)

Associate

Administrator

Steven Shafer

Sally

Schneider

Kay

Simmons

Steven

Kappes

Pamela

Starke-Reed

Former ARS Field

Organization

Bob Matteri

Dariusz Swietlik

Deborah Brennan

Larry Chandler

Andy Hammond

Fiscal Year 2016 President’s Budget Proposed for ARS – Overall Summary ($000)

FY15 Appropriation 1,132,625

Increases

Pay costs, 1.3% 9,025

Program Increases 97,273

Decreases

Proposed Redirections (25,986)

Proposed Terminations (21,397)

Net FY16 Salaries & Expenses 1,191,540

Buildings & Facilities 205,901

TOTAL BUDGET REQUEST 1,397,441

FY 2016 Proposed Program Increases $97,273,000

Climate Change 11,000

Reduce Vulnerability to Climate Change 8,000

Transformational Genetics 11,100

Apprentice Farmer Program 150

Antimicrobial Resistance 7,000

Combat. Antibiotic Res. Bact. 10,000

Agricultural Sustainability 8,000

Big Data, Earth Sci., Earth Obs. 2,523

Pollinators 7,000

Vertical Farming 5,000

Sustainable Small Farms 7,500

Repair and Maintenance 20,000

Agricultural Research Service

A Frameworkfor Attaining Agricultural Sustainability

The Long-Term Agro-Ecosystem Research(LTAR) Network:

Current Status & Future Trends

Grand Challenges Facing Agriculture in the 21st Century

2000 2050 210019501900

Year

World

Population

World Energy

Consumption

By 2050, agriculture will need to:•Supply enough agricultural products to support a global population of 9.7 billion people;

• Without depleting our natural resources or degrading our environment;

• Against a background of changes in climate that are expected to alter patterns of temperature and precipitation on which the world’s food production systems depend.

•Even in the absence of climate change, this would be a significant challenge.

These challenges threaten our food security & the availability of fresh water for a variety of needs.

Calls for the Creation of a Long-Term Research Network for Agro-ecosystems

(Walbridge & Shafer 2011)(Similar to NSF’s LTER network for Non-Managed Ecosystems)

Infrastructure to:

enable research on agricultural processes from field to landscape scales;

support long-term investigations into key components of the sustainable intensification of agricultural production;

Historical data records would provide a baseline against which to evaluate future changes;

Collect common datasets using shared research protocols over the next 30-50 years—likely representing the most important datasets collected by such a network.

In Feb. 2012, ARS Announced the Organization of 10 Existing Experimental Watersheds, Ranges, &

Research Farms Into an LTAR NetworkBased on 7 Criteria:

1. Productivity – the team’s research track record;

2. Infrastructure Capacity – presence of an instrumented watershed or other long-term research facility large enough to capture landscape-scale processes;

3. Data Richness – the length, breadth, depth, and quality of the existing data record;

4. Data Availability/Accessibility -- organization and accessibility of existing data sets;

5. Geographic Coverage – how potential sites were distributed in terms of major agricultural production regions, watershed basins, and eco-climatic zones;

6. Existing Partnerships – with producers, other stakeholders, universities, etc.;

7. Institutional Commitment – to support continued site operation for the next 30-50 years.

LTAR Network Operating Principles

Develop research questions that are shared and coordinated across sites.

Provide the capacity to address large-scale questions across sites through shared research protocols.

Collect compatible datasets across sites, and provide the capacity and infrastructure for cross-site data analysis.

Facilitate and foster shared engagement in thinking and acting like a network.

LTAR Sites in Farm Resource Regions

4/7/2015Free Template from www.brainybetty.com 14

LTAR Network Overview 18 sites

Data Records: 14 (CAF) to 100+ years (JER, NP, PRHP)

Area Covered (km2): 0.42 (KBS) to 16,500 (PRHP)

NEON Domains: 12 out of 17 (CONUS)

Major Drainage Basins: 12 out of 18 (CONUS)

Farm Resource Regions: 8 0ut of 9 (CONUS)

Shared Research Strategy (www.ars.usda.gov/ltar)

Four Priority Areas of Concern

1) Agro-ecosystem Productivity and Sustainability;

2) Climate Variability and Change;

3) Conservation and Environmental Quality;

4) Socio-economic Viability and Opportunities.

Four Key Products

1) New technologies & management practices;

2) New knowledge of processes & systems;

3) Improved agro-ecological models;

4) Comprehensive, accessible data.

Steve Shafer, Associate Administrator, National Programs

Paul Gibson, Chief Information Officer

Doreen Ware, Acting Chief Scientific Information Officer

Tom Houston, Chief Network Engineer

Process to Develop This Plan Three important documents

Big Data and Computing Workshop Summary, February 5-6, 2013

CSIO-CIO Big Data Pilot Proposals

ARS Scientific Computing AssessmentAri Berman et al., BioTeam, Inc., March 2014

Answer questions from Caird Rexroad (March 24)

Appointment of BDIP Team

Brainstorm: What questions need to be addressed to stand up this initiative

Contract with BioTeam, BDIP Team provided input to help develop details

Three components to the initial plan Science DMZ

Dedicated scientific research network for data computing

High-performance computing (HPC) system

Hybrid of local and cloud resources

Storage and efficient processing of ARS data

Virtual research support core

Experts to staff the new infrastructure

Provide computational research support

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

SCINet High-speed, scalable network at 6 locations Employ alternative, higher-efficiency security policies than ARSnet Dedicated to transport of research data Only carry non-sensitive (no PII) data Provide high-speed access to external computational and data

resources: NCBI, iPlant, XSEDE, etc. Accessible from specific compute and storage resources Physically separate from ARSnet, which ensures:

Alternative security policies Greatest efficiency for big data networking and collaboration Ensure continued security compliance by ARSnet

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

SCINet Locations

• 100 Gbps

– Albany, CA

– Ames, IA (NADC)

– Beltsville, MD (BARC/NAL)

• 10 Gbps

– Clay Center, NE

– Ft. Collins, CO (Bldg. D)

– Stoneville, MS

Core Hybrid Computing and Storage Ames, IA (NADC) Characteristics

69 Nodes; 1,560 cores; 15 TB memory

1.4 PB storage

AWS compute (640 cores) and storage (archival and replication)

Advantages A shared resources for research

Add capacity by leveraging cloud-based resources

Common location for scientists to use for collaboration

Accessible from ARS locations

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Element 3 of the Big Data Strategy:Virtual Core Team Maintain the ARS Hybrid Cloud (HPC, storage,

common services, Cloud connectivity, and security)

Maintain the ARS SCINet (security, network, storage, and HPC)

Work with laboratories on carefully specified scientific targets

Train scientists on relevant informatics topics

Maintain a Help Desk that responds to researcher queries and reports

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Virtual Core TeamAnalytics Support Section Efficiently reuse solutions across projects

Create standardized solutions for sets of common informatics needs that can be made available to scientists on self-serve basis.

Provide informatics resources to groups who would otherwise not have access to that kind of expertise.

Enable self-sufficiency among the ARS researchers through training, deep documentation, and extensive knowledge transfer.

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Pilot projects to Support Agency Strategic Plan for Open Data Agile development starting with the evaluation of a few pilot projects Pilot projects 6 -12 months examples

Data: Transcriptomes, Genetic variation, Genome assembly & Annotation Communities: I5K, NPGS, Pathogens,

Define set of use cases emphasizing Support for data access and sharing Analyses Data standards Best practices Training materials

Establish Teams Diversity locations, species, expertise

Workshops Train the trainers 2-3 day workshops targeting specific data types

Evaluate outcomes and recommendations

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Community Building Need to change the culture within the ARS

Move from individual CRIS project, location, to a Virtual Organization

The will require both bottom up and top down approaches

Working groups to support standards, policy, and training

Review of the existing policy & incentives

We need to start now and leverage existing ongoing work within projects.

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Many public benefits come from ARS-University partnerships leveraging resources in:

• Infrastructure• Innovation• Education

AGRICULTURAL

RESEARCH

SERVICE

AGRICULTURAL

RESEARCH SERVICE

Research with ARS’ University Partners

ARS Funded Cooperative

Research – 2014

Number of Projects 359

Participating Universities 46

Number of States 43

Total Funding $30.4 million

ARS Research Funding from

University Partners – 2014

Number of Projects 270

Participating Universities 42

Total Funding $22.8 million

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Opportunities

Increase funding through partnerships on competitive grant proposals

Increase awareness to leverage each others’ talent and facilities

ARS involvement in training

and mentoring – 2013

Pathways Interns 360

Graduate Students 850

Undergraduate Students 960

Post-Docs 335

Adjunct Appointments 1,137

Scientists serving as

Student Advisors714 Opportunities

Partnerships that bring

increased diversity to

agricultural sciences

Training the Next Generation

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Questions?

USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE