The University of Minnesota has an exceptional array of researchers working on a variety of aspects related to soybean improvement for Minnesota growers. Research activities range from those focused on applied outcomes to those intended to generate fundamental knowledge on the molecular genetics and physiology of how a soybean plant works. Over the last four years MSRPC has funded over two dozen separate research groups that are spread across eight different departments. During this time these labs have literally produced hundreds of research publications, hundreds of research and outreach presentations, and dozens of invention disclosures that ultimately lead to licensure of technology to private companies for commercialization. Moreover, the soybean research conducted at UMN also ends up in classrooms and extension presentations. We feel that it is fair to say that the University of Minnesota has one of strongest portfolios of soybean research in the U.S.
Universities have long been organized by discipline. The downside of this discipline-based department structure is that it tends to inhibit collaboration across departments with researchers being stuck in the so-called “silos” of departments working on academic problems of great interest to their peers within their discipline, but not necessarily working across disciplines to tackle larger problems of direct relevance to society. While this system is highly efficient, it can hinder opportunity to form collaborations and communicate our findings to soybean growers and industry counterparts.
The creation of an academic center is a way to create bridges between academic departments. Academic centers are defined by their mission and scope, not discipline. They consist of researchers who come together with complimentary skills to solve larger problems collaboratively. In addition to bringing together complimentary skills, academic centers can increase competitiveness for research funds as well as better communicate to the outside world what researchers are doing to solve any one problem.
Our aim is to continue hosting the University of Minnesota Soybean Center to help elevate research on soybeans for Minnesota growers. Advantages to organizing UMN soybean researchers into a center include:
1) Increased collaboration of researchers with complimentary skills to address larger problems in soybean production and utilization.
2) Enhanced communication of research findings through a dynamic website, social media presence, and press releases.
3) Enhanced competitiveness for outside funding sources (non-MSRPC), which would include industry and federal support.
4) A support unit for all soybean researchers (including graduate students and postdoctoral research associates)
5) Opportunity to attract new researchers to soybean who are in departments not currently involved in soybean research.
Sustaining an academic center focused on soybean research at UMN creates synergy between soybean researchers, ultimately building momentum leading to outputs that are greater than the sum of the individual investments.
Approach
We initiated the process of developing the UMN Soybean Research Center in May of 2021, and continued development to the present time. Since we formed the center, we have hosted many networking events, seminars, and educational events. A listing of such events and glimpse of our activities can be found on our website: soybeanresearchcenter.umn.edu. A major event we accomplished this summer was the “2024 Outstate Soybean Research Center Tour”. For this tour, we bussed over 20 UMN staff, graduate students, and faculty to three key soybean production-related sites in MN: The Schrader farm near Nerstrand, Puris (specialty soybean contractors), and CHS. These tours offer an opportunity for on-campus researchers to get off campus and talk directly to soybean producers and professionals in various parts of the supply chain. This is important because many student and staff researchers may not come from an agricultural background. These tours give them a chance to learn about the larger picture and challenges facing soybean production.
We continued to promote our work through social media and our website. Communicating internally and externally is important, so each summer we diligently curate our listservs, so they are up to date and each person is correctly categorized for effective communication. Other activities included hosting a fall semester research networking event where we brought in an external speaker – Shawn Conley, UW – alongside a poster session. Finally, we spent a fair bit of time collecting information on locations of studies across Minnesota to create posters on “what is being done and where”. These were displayed at the MSRPC research retreat at Breezy Point last summer, and will be used at future events such as Ag Expo to communicate research activities on campus and across the state.
Plans for the 2025-26 funding cycle include:
• Building upon what we have already established by holding seminars, networking events, and tours.
o Specifically, we will host another campus field day as we did in 2023. The 2023 event was a great success, with well over 100 people in attendance. Very positive feedback was received, along with press coverage spotlighting soybean research on campus. We decided to forego this event in 2024, and rather host this every-other-year to prevent declining interest as is so common when events are held too frequently. We hope this approach will sustain interest and excitement. Specific ideas for tour stops and themes will be developed over the winter monthly meetings in consultation with faculty on campus.
• Host a spring seminar speaker and networking event to connect campus staff, faculty and students to outside Center members.
• Recruit new researchers to the Soybean Center who have not worked on soybean in the past, but who has skill sets and knowledge that could be impactful to soybean utilization and production.
• Continue a campaign to raise funds from the private sector.
• Establish an external advisory board.
• Expand external communications to further highlight checkoff supported research programs and outputs.