With the opportunity provided by the Taskforce for the Advancement of Regional Innovation Clusters, or TARIC, Project 17 convened a coalition of Hartnell College, the City of Marina, the City of Salinas, the Monterey Bay International Trade Association and Barich Business Services to apply for the first TARIC grant of $2.15 million from a government group consisting of the Economic Development Administration ($1 million), the Employment Training Administration ($1 million) and the Small Business Administration ($150 thousand).  The grant is designed to fund the Regional Asset and Resource Inventory, the Ag-Tech Association, business consulting to both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged businesses in the tri-county area, export readiness from the Monterey Bay International Trade Association and a Precision Agriculture program at Hartnell for the region’s largely Hispanic population of second-generation Americans.  As Salinas Mayor Dennis Donahue says, “No second-generation pickers.”

A second coalition of researchers, Project 17 and educators is being put together to fund robotics for agriculture research, education and deployment.  The RFP comes from the National Science Foundation.