AAU, along with a group of 32 higher education and agriculture organizations, sent a letter to congressional agriculture appropriators to request they fund the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority pilot, known as AgARDA, at the authorized level of $50 million for FY21. Modeled after ARPA-E and DARPA, AgARDA seeks to support advanced research on long-term and high-risk challenges in agriculture. This level of funding would bolster allow the program USDA’s efforts to protect American agriculture and food from pathogenic emerging threats and leverage public-private partnerships to accelerate research.