The Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station is ensuring researchers within all colleges of the AAES have the opportunity to meet each other and learn about interdisciplinary research.
The AAES hosted the inaugural AAES Faculty Summit on Dec. 10 as a way to facilitate networking among the over 190 AAES faculty members within the Auburn University College of Agriculture, School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, College of Human Sciences, College of Sciences and Mathematics and College of Veterinary Medicine.
Participants in the summit had the opportunity to learn about USDA-NIFA Hatch funding and the various programs that have been established to support AAES faculty members.
The event also provided an opportunity for interdisciplinary research team leaders to share their interests and to learn about the variety of research projects conducted by AAES faculty.
“In particular, the Faculty Summit offered a chance for new AAES faculty members to meet their colleagues, and to network with researchers from all five AAES colleges,” said Henry Fadamiro, associate director of the AAES. “Participants discussed common points of interests and shared how their ideas could be developed into formal research proposals.”
Fadamiro also said that the desired outcome of the Faculty Summit is to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations among AAES faculty members and to advance Auburn University’s research enterprise.
Team leaders and faculty representatives from all five AAES colleges brought informational posters about their research projects to the event in order to provide conversation starters and frame discussion points for the summit.
“The conversation allowed for different ideas to be considered within the framework of collaborative investigative topics,” Fadamiro said.
The AAES plans to host more Faculty Summits, with particular emphasis on providing faculty with more opportunities to network and critically examine how to transform their research ideas into formally structured interdisciplinary proposals.