June 5, 2026
NEED Announces Planning Grant and Seed Funding Award Recipients
June 5, 2026
The Association of Northeast Extension Directors (NEED) is proud to announce the recipients of its inaugural Northeast Extension Planning Grants and Seed Funding awards. Through this new program, NEED is investing $20,000 to catalyze multi-institutional collaborations that advance the Northeast Agenda and lay the groundwork for larger, sustained Extension and research efforts. Two outstanding proposals were selected from the 2026 cycle, each bringing together land-grant university partners to tackle challenges facing the Northeast.
Nurse Cow Dairy Systems: Peer to Peer Insights, On Farm Benchmarks, and Impacts on Cow-Calf Welfare University of Vermont and Penn State Extension | Award: $9,981
Principal Investigator Dr. Kate Creutzinger (University of Vermont) and Co-Investigators Dr. Jessica Mitchell and Ms. Emily Fread (Penn State Extension) will investigate cow and calf health and welfare on organic dairy farms using nurse cow rearing systems — an alternative practice in which calves are housed with lactating cows outside the milking herd rather than separated at birth. Despite the adoption of this practice on some farms in the Northeast, no U.S.-based research on these systems has been published and no evidence-based guidelines exist to inform best management practices.
The team will visit ten certified organic dairy farms across Vermont and Pennsylvania to collect animal welfare and health data on both cows and calves, and will facilitate participatory learning opportunities with producers. The project is designed to generate pilot data to support future integrated research and extension efforts.
Protecting Horses, Protecting People: A Multistate Partnership to Mitigate Vector-Borne Disease Threats Penn State University, Rutgers University, University of Maryland, and a fourth institution to be decided.
Principal Investigator Dr. Danielle Smarsh (Penn State University), alongside co-investigators and Extension specialists from Penn State, Rutgers University, and the University of Maryland, will develop educational programs to address the risks of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) — including Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, West Nile Virus, and Eastern Equine Encephalitis — transmitted by ticks, mosquitoes, and flies to both horses and humans in the Northeast.
The project will develop and distribute a survey to stakeholders in the participating states, then deliver 12 in-person workshops and a 3-part webinar series for horse owners and caretakers. The in-person workshops will cover ectoparasite management and include hands-on learning; the webinars will each focus on one of the three main ectoparasites. Data collected through the survey and program evaluations will support a future multistate grant proposal.
NEED congratulates both project teams and is excited for the projects to produce robust outcomes. For more information about the Planning Grants and Seed Funding program, visit our awards page.