The ISRC hosted a Think Tank workshop in September with nearly 40 soybean stakeholders to learn about soybean production research needs and to generate ideas to help guide the center’s future research efforts. 

Facilitators, organized, trained and led by Katie Dentzman, assistant professor of sociology, assisted by assigning participants to small groups comprised of soybean farmers, industry partners, commodity partners and university researchers at six tables. Participants were asked to answer three broad questions through small group table discussions regarding challenges/barriers in soybean production, soybean research and topics that soybean research was not addressing. A fourth question separated the groups into larger peer groups (farmers with farmers, researchers with researchers, etc.) and asked stakeholders to discuss what they had learned from the first three questions in their small groups.

Notecards were used by participants to record their thoughts and ideas to help drive table discussions. One representative from each table was designated to take notes and report out their findings to the large group. The facilitators collected both notes and notecards from each table to compile a final summary.

Following the Think Tank, a survey was sent to provide participants an opportunity to express opinions on the value of the workshop and share any final comments either missed or unanswered during the workshop. Dentzman’s team then put together a summary of the workshop. Below are links to summaries from participants’ notecards, the report-out notes from each table and the workshop survey results. 

Notecards summary 

Notes summary
 

Survey summary

Many valid research topics were identified during the discussions, which the ISRC will use to help prioritize future research investments. These will be shared with the center’s research affiliates during a call for soybean research ideas this spring. Some specific soybean production themes that rose to the top included pests, extreme weather events, soybean physiology, soil health, and soybean composition, genetics and breeding. Many thanks to all who participated.