The Idaho Agricultural
Experiment Station (IAES) is the administrative research division of the College of
Agriculture at the University of Idaho and is responsible for the college's state-wide
programming in agricultural research. The IAES is located on the University of Idaho
campus in Moscow. Accordingly, the IAES is not a specific location (as the term
"station"might infer), but rather is a complex, integrated network of locations,
facilities, and faculty and staff all dedicated to performing agricultural research in
support of Idaho's complex agricultural industry.
The IAES funds about 80 full-time faculty equivalents that are distributed among
approximately 120 faculty members and 150 full-time technical support staff. Research
faculty of the College of Agriculture often have split appointments and have additional
responsibilities for academic and/or extension programming. Approximately half of the
IAES' total personnel are located on the University of Idaho campus and half are located
at the college's nine Research and Extension Centers across
Idaho.
The IAES has an annual appropriated budget of approximately $13.7 million
dollars with about 83% coming from the State of Idaho and 17% coming from the USDA's
Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (Hatch Act Funds). In
addition to the appropriated agricultural research resources, faculty in the college
currently attract about $10 million per year in external research grants and contracts.
Approximately 70 percent of agriculture research programs are focused on
solving problems encountered by Idaho citizens while 30 percent of the effort is in more
fundamental science areas. All research is conducted in relation to problems/issues
encountered in Idaho, even though much of the scientific information generated is also
applicable at the regional and national levels.
All faculty members of the College of Agriculture, who have agricultural
research responsibility and official IAES research projects in the eight academic departments of the college, are
affiliated with the IAES and receive funding to support salaries (faculty and technical
support personnel) and research operations through the IAES. The IAES is administered by
the college's Associate Dean for Research or IAES Director, Dick Heimsch, who has responsibility
for maintaining the college's research facilities and infrastructure and is the
accountable university official for all state and federal funds appropriated for
agricultural research.
