Full Narrative Report for submission pdf

Executive Summary

Year 1 of TRI-CEA laid the groundwork for a cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary collaborative research program, focused on expanding controlled environment agriculture (CEA) across three EPSCoR jurisdictions. Despite delays tied to hiring freezes, funding uncertainty, and institutional processes, the project progressed meaningfully toward nearly all Year 1 goals across its biophysics, socioeconomics, and workforce development threads.

Figure 1 Hydroponic System Demonstration, All Hands Meeting, February 2025. Michael Baldwin, a GrowBig consultant contracted by University of Wyoming, demonstrates a Deep Water Culture (DWC) system for participants at the All Hands Meeting. The hydroponic system is being demonstrated at the greenhouse testbed of the Controlled Environment Agriculture program in the School of Trades, Advanced Technologies and Sustainability, Santa Fe Community College (NM).

A major milestone was the successful in-person All-Hands Meeting held February 13–14, 2025, at Santa Fe Community College, with 22 attendees: 10 faculty/researchers, 7 students, and 5 other staff members from the five collaborating institutions. The event supported critical relationship-building, project clarification, and planning for Year 2. According to the external evaluator, 83% of participants rated the meeting 5 stars, and all attendees reported meaningful new connections, especially around student internships, local engagement, and shared modeling tools.

Across the project, more than a dozen undergraduate and graduate students were directly engaged in research, internships, or initial micro-credential programing. These included interns at NMSU’s Farmington site, students developing optimization models at UNM and SFCC, students helping draft survey instruments and conduct literature reviews at UW and USD, and SFCC CEA students evaluated for Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI) micro-credentials.

Collaboration and community engagement were also core strengths in Year 1. EDOCS records show at least 15 formally logged external collaborations, including rural organizations (e.g., Sinte Gleska University, Wind River Food Sovereignty Project), high schools, and technical colleges. These relationships supported listening sessions, articulation discussions, and local system planning.

TRI-CEA’s Advisory Board, composed of six experts in traditional agriculture, commercial hydroponics, plant science, epidemiology, and technical education, is scheduled to convene for the first time on June 2, 2025. Their insights will inform Year 2 planning, including priorities for student support and external engagement.

To ensure engaged collaboration, TRI-CEA:

• Built systems at SFCC and initiated procurement at UW, NMSU, and UNM for hydroponics research.
• Held informal and semi-structured listening sessions with partners in SD, NM, and WY.
• Integrated traditional food systems and sustainability perspectives into research framing.
• Developed microcredentials, training SOPs, and credential evaluator capacity.
• Coordinated cross-institutional internThe All-Hands Meeting provided a venue for cross-site demonstration and training,
• helping new staff and students understand the visionship and mentorship activities.
• Hosted the All-Hands Meeting for demonstration, planning, and team building.

For example, in South Dakota, the team worked with the Sicangu Lakota community to conduct a listening session that identified affordability, access, and traditional food values as top food system concerns. These findings are now informing socio-economic modeling and outreach planning.

At SFCC, faculty created a microcredential pathway embedded in its AAS degree and piloted laboratory-based assessments, while staff at NMSU will supervise interns through the Farmington greenhouse site—including a senior from Navajo Prep and a student through the Shiprock Workforce Development Center.

The All-Hands Meeting provided a venue for cross-site demonstration and training, helping new staff and students understand the vision and tools of the program and generating new cross-jurisdictional partnerships.

Looking ahead to the summer months (within the current program year), two TRI-CEA institutions—University of New Mexico and University of Wyoming—will launch coordinated summer programs to extend hands-on training and research opportunities for student participants.

At UNM, a free Introduction to CEA Workshop will offer student participants stipends and the opportunity to learn hydroponics techniques, build environmental sensors, and contribute to installations at TRI-CEA sites. The workshop includes both classroom and field-based activities, with sessions held at UNM and regional farm sites.

At UW, the AGRI4990 Principles and Applications of Controlled Environment Agriculture course will serve as a cross disciplinary summer program for students from UW and regional community colleges. The course combines lectures from UW faculty and industry professionals with lab-based training in CEA deployment and management. Participants will earn academic credit and a stipend, with access to internships and future project involvement.

At SFCC during the summer semester, 2 student employees and 4 student interns will be operating and maintaining the TRI-CEA systems in the greenhouse and a visiting graduate student is collecting data for his Master’s thesis. SFCC Faculty will deliver and assemble up to 3 replicate hydroponic systems for NMSU’s Farmington campus.