The Coordinated Soybean Centers Group (CSCG) held their annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 24 in conjunction with the Soybean Research Forum and Think Tank Workshop. The CSCG includes representatives from eight centers: Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and North Carolina and their respective state soybean associations.   

Representing Iowa at the meeting were ISRC Co-director Greg Tylka, Iowa Soybean Association Chief Officer of Research and Conservation Christie Wiebbecke and ISRC Research Administrator Jill Cornelis, who organized this year’s meeting. The North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP) and the U.S. Soybean Research Collaborative (USSRC) co-sponsored the meeting. NCSRP Director Ed Anderson opened the meeting, then representatives from each center provided brief updates and USSRC Director Katherine Drake Stowe offered a summary of the Soybean Research Forum and Think Tank. 

The remainder of the meeting was spent in small group discussions facilitated by ISU Sociologist Katie Dentzman and graduate student Joe Hollis. Each group was asked to respond to six questions that focused on helping the soybean centers group figure out where they “fit” and how they can function together. The group works to foster collaboration, identify funding opportunities and deliver high-quality research, teaching and Extension programs to enhance soybean farming and the soybean industry. These efforts complement and extend other checkoff-funded work to ensure increasingly high quality, sustainable, productive and profitable soybeans and soybean products for domestic and global markets.