M A R C H 2 0 1 8 POTATO GROWER 7 watered down. Fast forward to 2016 when essentially the same proposal was submitted to the SCRI program. The most significant difference was that in 2016 the U.S. potato industry gave it its unanimous support! In the spring of 2017, Dr. Charkowski was notified that her project had been selected to receive $2.7 million in award funding in response to that 2016 proposal. The unanimous industry support for Dr. Charkowski’s Dickeya project— demonstrated to USDA through numerous support letters—was devel- oped primarily through the Potatoes USA Potato Research Advisory Committee, or PRAC. The PRAC entity was created in 2016 as a vehicle to help establish national industry research priorities and mobilize indus- try support for those priorities. It has members from the National Potato Council, Potatoes USA, and state pota- to organizations, including NPPGA’s Chuck Gunnerson. We are working to apply the lessons learned through the Dickeya project to others. An ambitious SCRI proposal on soil health, spearheaded by Dr. Carl Rosen at the University of Minnesota is currently under review at USDA. The PRAC led preparations resulted in a proposal that received even more industry support than the successful Dickeya project from the year before. If we achieve the hoped-for outcome, it will suggest that potato research funding success looks a little less like chance and that it bears an uncanny resemblance to preparation. com/salt-index oliquid.c agr The topic of Dickeya and the significant losses that came with the disease was a regular feature of industry meetings since it first reared its ugly head.