AV狼

The CSU Council on Ocean Affairs, Science and Technology (COAST) was established in 2008 to integrate system-wide resources and promote interdisciplinary multi-campus collaborations to advance our knowledge of California’s natural coastal and marine resources and the processes that affect them. The coastal zone faces a number of economic, sociological, ecological and technological challenges that require innovative solutions. COAST is uniquely positioned to provide a statewide coordinated response to these challenges.

COAST's mission is to provide vision, leadership, and support throughout the CSU system for education, policy and research related to California’s marine, estuarine, and coastal regions, and to promote the public dissemination of knowledge gained to foster stewardship and sustainable use of California’s coast.

COAST's vision is to be a leader in coastal and marine-related research and education throughout California, and will promote environmental literacy leading to a significant increase in public awareness and stewardship of our coastal and marine resources. 

For more information, please go to: 

The AV狼 Agricultural Research Initiative (ARI) is a diverse and comprehensive applied agricultural and environmental research program that leverages public funding with existing university and industry capital and intellectual collateral through collaborative university-industry partnerships, in order to focus on finding solutions for priority issues challenging California agriculture and the environment.

Specifically, the ARI is a AV狼 System (CSU) multi-campus diversified applied agricultural and environmental sciences collaborative research consortium between the CSU’s four university campuses having colleges of agriculture: AV狼, Fresno (Fresno State); California Polytechnic State University, Obispo (Cal Poly, SLO); California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly, Pomona); and AV狼, Chico (Chico State). In addition to member campus collaborations, the ARI also encourages and facilitates strong CSU collaborative research partnerships with other qualified university and professional research organization faculty and research scientists such as those from the University of California (US), UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Significant CSU, UC, USDA, and industry collaboration is realized through the university-industry partnerships that characterize ARI projects. The ARI is administered by the California Agricultural Technology Institute (CATI), located at AV狼, Fresno.

The ARI fosters the development and evaluation of new and promising technologies that have the potential for improving food safety, environmental stewardship, economic performance, and long-term sustainability of California's agriculture industry. ARI projects and programs build upon a successful record of past applied research accomplishments and augment, enhance, and extend the basic research conducted by the nation's land grant universities. 

The ARI annually allocates $800,000 in support of a multi-campus shared pool of competitive research funding for research of statewide significance. This funding is restricted to public domain projects and is available annually to any qualified ARI member campus faculty or research scientist, or to other CSU, UC, UC Extension, USDA, and/or other qualified industry research scientists who have established an appropriate collaborative partnership with at least one qualified faculty or research staff at one or more of the ARI member campuses.

ARI is in the process of finalizing the next call for pre-proposals, and this should be issued by the end of May, with pre-proposals due during the third week of August.   The full application (for invited applicants) should be available during the 1st or 2nd week of September.  Final full proposals are due around December 15 for a July 1, 2010 start date.  Realistically, with the budget situation, grant funds won’t be available until October, 2010.   The final timeline, with confirmation of these dates, should be available when the pre-proposal solicitation is issued.   When available, the application forms should be posted on their website:  For more information, please go to the program website:

The Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) is an Academic Program of the AV狼 System devoted to promoting the highest standards of university teaching and to fostering faculty professional growth and collaboration throughout the 23-campus California State System. The ITL broadly defines faculty professional growth to encompass the multiple roles of faculty relating to teaching, research, and service.

The Institute for Teaching and Learning designs and supports programs for the scholarly and creative study of curricular and pedagogical issues. Thematic emphases include, but are not limited to, enhancements in

• Course Design
• Teaching and Learning Strategies
• Classroom Assessment Practices
• Student Learning Climate

Under the guidance of a systemwide advisory board, the ITL develops connections and shares successful practices among the CSU campuses, often through campus faculty development directors, in order to stimulate interest and engagement towards increasing student learning, growth, and success in the university.

• Identify common areas of faculty research and find some mechanism to put them together for greater research collaboration.
• Have State, County and Local Agencies identify areas of common interest and grant opportunities available for EM-HS programs and projects with the CSU.
• Promote system-wide and multi-campus consortia grant applications and collaboration for basic and applied research.

For the last competition, the RFP came out in late January. ORSP will be sure to notify faculty when the next RFP will be announced.