Location: Range Sheep Production Efficiency Research
Project Number: 2056-21500-001-004-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Apr 3, 2023
End Date: Jun 30, 2025
Objective:
1) Conduct stakeholder situation assessment, which includes researching needs and goals for the management of rangeland ecosystem services and identifying stakeholders internally and externally influenced by identified needs and goals.
2) Develop and implement a research co-production methodology with ARS stakeholders.
Approach:
1) Conduct a systematic situational assessment of rangeland stakeholders and their needs. This will include a) comprehensive identification of public stakeholders for ARS rangeland research at the RSPER unit; b) elucidation of stakeholder mental models of the synergies and trade-offs among multiple rangeland ecosystem services the goals, and c) documentation of stakeholder research needs and land management goals relevant to both RSPER rangeland properties and within the Upper Intermountain region more generally. Data collection procedures will include semi-structured interviews and focus groups with group representatives or individuals, inclusive of diverse agricultural, conservation, rural well-being and other viewpoints. 2) Integrate findings from the situation assessment into a new co-production method with USDA-ARS RSPER Unit stakeholders. The results of the situation assessment will be summarized and integrated into the development of a research co-production methodology. To bring stakeholder knowledge and goals into research and ecosystem management planning at the USDA-ARS Dubois location, the Cooperator and ARS will convene a group of stakeholders and develop “collaborative” management and experimental goals. The Cooperator and ARS will then develop experimental management strategies (a case study) that will allow the group to evaluate management outcomes scientifically. The result will be a summary of best practices for co-produced science (a methods guide for researchers and collaborators). 3) Cooperator will serve as facilitator ARS AI User Forum. This will include onsite participation to a) inspire participants to build networks and communities of practice around the various AI tools and techniques useful to research, b) consult with ARS to ensure the most out of the breakouts to encourage participants to self-organize into research AI collaboration communities. The breakouts will be smaller, more targeted sets of presentations, topics and use cases. The cooperator and ARS will consult on the structure and goals of the breakouts, in addition to the Cooperator circulate among the breakouts to observe and provide feedback. The result will be a report on the forum, observations, lessons learned, impactful outcomes in real time, and thoughts on potential further future impactful outcomes to help capture and document what is accomplished and how it might impact USDA research going forward.
