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US Rosaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project (RosCAP) proposal

Administration

Key Personnel and Management Plan

RosCAP management structure is international in scope, multi-institutional, and highly interdisciplinary to reflect our vertical integration strategy at the programmatic level. The Project Advisory Board will consist of educators, extension specialists, and scientific advisors to review RosCAP progress and make recommendations. A Stakeholders Advisory Board will ensure that RosCAP goals and deliverables are applicable to the industry and have impact. Both will report to the RosCAP Steering Committee comprised by the project managers and team leaders. Each team leader will be responsible for managing the respective project components. Due to the large size of RosCAP, project management duties will be split among 3 managers: 1) Abbott will lead the education component and serve as the RosCAP project director; providing hands-on management including site visits to ensure progress and cohesion. Peace will directly manage the general translational breeding infrastructure to ensure that it meets the needs of and is adaptive to the subfamily research, education, and extension programs. Dardick will provide administrative support for the project including organizing meetings and travel, project reports, website postings, announcements, etc. A full time RosCAP administrative assistant will be hired and stationed at USDA-AFRS under the direction of Dr. Dardick. The project website www.RosCAP.org will serve as a hub for project communication.

Administrative timeline:
Weekly: each team leader will provide short updates/announcements that will be summarized, sent via e-mail to participants, and posted on the project website.
Quarterly: each team leader will prepare and submit a full progress report. The progress reports will be evaluated and summarized by the Steering Committee for distribution via webserver and e-mail.
Semi-annually: The RosCAP steering committee will hold teleconference calls with both advisory committees to update them and solicit feedback.
Annually: A RosCAP project meeting will be held annually for all participants that will include: face-to-face meetings with the advisory committees, project reports from team leaders, project workshops, and student presentations. A RosCAP kick-off meeting will be held at the start of year 1.

RosCAP Evaluation, metrics, and sustainability
Specific measurement tools will be utilized to regularly track student progress and satisfaction, the impact of extension activities, and the success of integrated translational breeding programs (outlined in approach and procedures section). Non-biased measurement tools will include questionnaires, anonymous reports from project participants and students, and solicited stakeholder feedback. These will be reviewed quarterly by the RosCAP Steering Committee which will provide assessments, responses, and updated mission directives. Comprehensive assessments will be conducted annually with input from the Project and Stakeholder Advisory Committees. Long term project metrics will be measured in actual deliverables such as: numbers of students graduating with translational breeding degrees, maintenance/expansion of public breeding programs and number of new breeders hired, number of ‘useful’ molecular markers identified, number and types of markers integrated into breeding programs, measurable increases in efficiency (both time and cost) of breeding programs using markers, changes in numbers and levels of public or private funding for breeding programs, and the development of elite cultivars and releases through translational breeding. RosCAP has been designed to leverage existing Rosaceae research, education, and extension infrastructure to ensure sustainability beyond the funding period. Likewise, the goals and deliverables have been selected based on their sustainability and potential impact. We anticipate a seamless exit as the integrated research, education, and extension networks will become part of the fabric of the Rosaceae community and their ongoing activities.