Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Kansas
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Kansas Project


C3PO - Connecting conservation culture to policy opportunity - available right now in a next-generation land grant galaxy near you. Proposal Pending

January 2025 - December 2026


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • Kansas

The rationale for our grant is that we know there is demand both at the University and in the community-at-large for more knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination on issues of environmental sustainability, conservation, and management. We also know that environmental science programs (within the Division of Biology and other applied natural science departments) do an excellent job of teaching undergraduates and graduate students discipline-specific scientific concepts and methods. Unfortunately, we see that upon graduation students who are well trained in these natural science fields and are interested in non-academic conservation jobs (e.g.,agencies, industry, NGOs) are currently lacking a full understanding of how public agencies and conservation institutions function. In other words, these highly qualified natural science students are not fully prepared for their environmental careers in public service (e.g., state agencies, federal agencies, environmental industries, nongovernmental agencies). Technically trained natural scientists need additional training to be effective at conservation. Training in (1) the ability to lead and manage organizations that ultimately serve the public good, (2) how to work collaboratively across sectors, and (3) ways to engage science in the policy process will benefit our students and stakeholders. Conversely, we have a number of students in public administration fields that are well trained in many skills needed for someone who is interested in public service, but these policy-public administration students that are interested in environmental protection or conservation often lack knowledge about the additional technical aspects of complex environmental science problems. We seek a way to marry our and KSU's expertise to provide a practical bridge that combines strengths across university departments, eliminates weaknesses of specialized programs, and provides productive opportunities for KSU students and the Kansas stakeholder agencies who will employ our graduates in the future. When the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan was introduced, we became even more sure that the direction we suggest here is needed. Providing this bridge is a win-win for all. As one final comment, as our prototype develops, we will seek to include other environmental-oriented units on campus.