IonE has an annual call for project proposals through their Impact Goals grant program.
Do you have a project idea you would like to discuss? Reach out to SW RSDP Executive Director Anne Dybsetter at adybsett@umn.edu for a conversation.
Sitting at the table together
What happens when two programs within the University of Minnesota discover they have a lot in common and decide to forge a new partnership in the name of sustainability? Minnesotans and the environment prosper.
This is the outcome of a collaboration between University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) and the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment (IonE).
Two organizations built on the belief in the power of community-University partnerships.
“IonE catalyzes research that helps people and the environment thrive, “ explains Jessica Hellmann, IonE executive director. “We do this research best when we bring together community leaders and University experts. And to have the most positive impact for Minnesota, we invest directly in these research relationships.”
Kathy Draeger, RSDP statewide director, says relationship development is the heartbeat of their work. “RSDP was founded by farmers, community members, legislators and U of M faculty who understood the power of sitting at the table together to get work done. This same vision of a shared table is what drew us to working with IonE.”
Breaking through
Ten years ago, fewer than a handful of deep winter greenhouses were operating in Minnesota, and little was known about their effectiveness for sustainable food production in a northern climate.
Farmers wanted to know if this technology could reduce the energy burden of growing fresh food during Minnesota winters while also providing new market opportunities.
Communities wanted to know if this technology might provide a sustainable source of healthy, fresh and local food.
To answer these questions, RSDP launched a research collaboration with the College of Sustainable Building Design with support from seed funding from IonE.
“When RSDP first started the work with farmers on deep winter greenhouses, we had a big idea. Let’s launch a campaign to build five prototypes, one in each of the five RSDP regions across the state.” Draeger explains, “IonE provided the first dollars to support and accelerate this idea.”
Today, the fruits of this labor are easy to spot. Dozens of deep winter greenhouses dot rural Minnesota, including the early prototypes operating in each of the five RSDP regions.
Thousands of pounds of produce have been grown, and countless tours, educational workshops and events have been hosted in these greenhouses. Next year, another five greenhouses will be built using an updated design.
These early deep winter greenhouse successes led to the RSDP and IonE forming a formal partnership in 2019.
Former Northwest RSDP Executive Director, Linda Kingery, was actively involved in developing the structure and strategy of the new partnership, including serving in a liaison role between the two organizations.
After Kingery’s retirement, Anne Dybetter, RSDP’s southwest executive director, stepped in.
“The liaison role works as a connection from rural Minnesotans to the decisions and priority-setting of our partnership.” Dybsetter explains, “When I sit with my IonE colleagues, I bring with me the questions, concerns and important ideas that I’ve heard from rural community partners, neighbors and leaders. This input has directly shaped the goals, funding priorities and project awards IonE has supported since we started working together.”
Championing the future
Together, RSDP and IonE now have a portfolio of community-University research that digs into the sustainability-focused questions Minnesotans have been asking, including net-zero housing, food waste reduction, clean energy and more.
“Both RSDP and IonE have distinct and complementary grant programs that build on each other,” Melissa Kenney, IonE director of research, explains, “community-initiated RSDP seed grants to grow into IonE Impact Goal research grants and these sustainable ideas are tested and, if successful, flourish in greater Minnesota.”
This dynamic played out recently with the now nationally recognized Forest Assisted Migration Project.
After working on reforestation efforts in his region for a few years, Northeast RSDP Executive Director, David Abazs, discovered University of Minnesota Duluth professor Julie Etterson’s groundbreaking research on climate change and forests at an IonE sustainability symposium. Together, they applied and were awarded IonE’s 2020 Impact Goals Grant.
“It was because of IonE’s grant support during the early development of this breakthrough research, a time rife with risk and uncertainty, that the Forest Assisted Migration program moved from an idea to research and application, which in turn paved the way for seed collection, a farmers cooperative and thousands of climate-smart trees planted in Northern Minnesota,” Abazs says.
The collaboration between RSDP and IonE is on course to continue well into the future. RSDP's student engagement efforts are supported by Mary Hannemann, an IonE staff member who co-leads sustainability education programming. Additionally, the partnership agreement was recently renewed. Abazs has joined Draeger and a cohort of creative and innovative faculty and professionals as a prestigious IonE Fellow, deepening the collaboration and creating another opportunity to sit at the table together.