PRIORITY SETTING IN A STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION: SHIFTING PARADIGMS;

This experiment station system, based largely on federal (Hatch and McIntire-Stennis) formula funds plus state funds, and near autonomy of the director, was very productive. However, the paradigm has shifted for some SAES, is shifting for many others, and likely will shift for all by the year 2000. In my view these shifts are not inherently either good or bad. They simply are reality and our challenge is to deal effectively with them to identify the high priority problems and assist in obtaining funds to address them. With that hint of how I intend to approach my assignment, let me make just three introductory points: 1) I don't pretend to have the formula for setting priorities in State Agricultural Experiment Stations (SAES). Even the ideas I will be sharing with you certainly are not mine alone, but a composite of where I'm at in my synthesis and thinking process. 2) I will talk about some key components of a priority setting process which seem to me to be important wherever we may be. 3) Priority setting, in terms of both parameters and process, has changed and likely will be dramatically different tomorrow than it is today. I suggest that our challenge is to be prepared "to do the best of things in the worst of times."