The History of the Institute
The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute is in full stride, working in concert with a powerful network of state, national and global partners who are all committed to ensuring water and food security for future generations. It is nearly impossible to compile a list of all the impactful projects the institute has developed and supported in the past decade. The following timeline reflects a sampling of the institute’s varied and innovative achievements. DWFI’s annual reports, as well as other publications from DWFI staff and affiliated faculty, are available to read and download from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Digital Commons: digitalcommons.unl.edu/wfflit.
The founding of the institute
“The test is not research and policy papers that end up in archives in educational institutions. We’ll know this has been a success if 5 years from now, or 10 years from now, you go somewhere in the world, and they say, ‘We had a problem with water; we contacted the Daugherty Water for Food Institute; they helped us out; and we solved our problems.’ That will be success.” - Mogens Bay
The full story behind the institute’s founding is available at go.unl.edu/DWFIstory.
2009
- Mogens Bay, chairman of the Robert B. Daugherty Foundation, met with JB Milliken, president of the University of Nebraska, to share Bob Daugherty’s vision of a global research institute focused on improving water use in agriculture to ensure food security
- To gauge interest in the institute, the University of Nebraska hosted its first Water for Food Global Conference in 2009 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Attracting high-level speakers from around the world and many attendees, University of Nebraska leaders knew this was a valued concept to help address an urgent global need
2010
- The Robert B. Daugherty Foundation made a $50 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to fund the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute
- Prem Paul, vice chancellor for research and economic development, and his staff assumed much of the early work of the institute, including conference planning
- A search committee began worldwide recruitment for the founding executive director and other key leadership positions
- Hosted the 2010 Water for Food Global Conference, “Water for Food: Growing More with Less”
- Hired Rachael Herpel as a research and outreach coordinator, first member of DWFI staff
2011
- Began recruiting paid faculty to lead water and food security research
- Hired Marc Andreini, a civil engineer and hydrologist, as a senior research scientist
- Hosted the 2011 Water for Food Global Conference, “Paths to Solutions”
- Started the Faculty Fellow program, recognizing and supporting faculty who shared the institute’s focus on water and food security from a variety of research disciplines
- Established UNESCO-IHE double degree program with UNL. The degree students receive from UNESCO-IHE is the MSc degree in Water Science and Engineering with a specialization in Land and Water Development. UNL awards the MS degree in Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering, with a specialization in Advanced Water Management for Food Production
2012
- Hired Roberto Lenton, former director general of the International Water Management Institute, to lead the institute as its founding executive director
- Hosted the 2012 Water for Food Global Conference, “Blue Water, Green Water and the Future of Agriculture”
- Incorporated the Nebraska Water Center and Water Sciences Lab into DWFI
- Recruited more Faculty Fellows and enhanced their development
- Started building communications capacity with website, social media, print materials
- Started establishing partnerships and leveraging funding
- Co-hosted policy events internationally and in Nebraska: World Water Week, World Water Forum, Institute on Science for Global Policy conference in Nebraska
2013
- Prepared a clear strategy to guide the institute’s work
- Hired Chittaranjan Ray as director of the Nebraska Water Center
- Hosted the 2013 Water for Food Global Conference, “Too Hot, Too Wet, Too Dry: Building Resilient Ecosystems”
- Expanded Global Yield Gap and Water Productivity Atlas to include several new countries
- Increased the number of Faculty Fellows and supported research
- Hired Christopher Neale as director of research
- Built partnerships with global agencies, such as The World Bank, the International Water Management Institute and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
2014
- Rounded out the DWFI leadership team with the hiring of Nicholas Brozović as director of policy and Molly Nance as director of public relations and communications
- Moved into new office space at the recently built Nebraska Innovation Campus
- Developed a strong set of collaborations with national and international partners, balancing work in Nebraska with global outreach, including in India, Brazil, China and selected countries in East Africa and the Middle East and North Africa region
- Convened policy dialogues, workshops and seminars
- Initiated the Water for Food Institute Student Support Programs for undergraduate, graduate students and postdocs working with Faculty Fellows on subjects related to the institute’s mission
- Developed 2015-2020 strategic plan
- Hosted the 2014 Water for Food Global Conference, “Harnessing the Data Revolution: Ensuring Water and Food Security from Field to Global Scales,” in Seattle, Washington
2015
- Established the Water Advanced Research and Innovation (WARI) fellowship program for Indian students with the Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum and UNL
- Developed the Water for Food entrepreneurship accelerator
- Held the first annual Student Support Research Forum
- Collaborated with FAO to develop a remote sensing-based water productivity product and to establish a regional platform to serve these products in the MENA region
- Partnered with IARI on drought monitoring, irrigation efficiency, and improving drought and salt tolerance of crops 2015
- Convened sessions at the World Water Forum, World Water Week and co-hosted a significant conference on water quality trading with the USDA and EPA that brought more than 200 state and federal government and private sector attendees to Lincoln
- Began the Water for Food Global Institute Undergraduate Intern Program, providing internships to highly qualified students
- Enhanced communications strategy with focus on video, targeted social media and improved website navigation
2016
- University of Nebraska Regents selected Hank Bounds as president of the University of Nebraska. He joined the DWFI board of directors
- Hosted the 2016 Water for Food Global Conference, “Catalytic Collaborations: Building Public-Private Partnerships for Water and Food Security”
- Added 18 Global Fellows, external to the University of Nebraska, whose geographic locations strengthen the institute’s global influence
- Launched the GloDET satellite based ET monitoring project with the Nebraska Drought Mitigation Center, with funding from USAID through ICBA
- Supported a student study tour of water scarcity and research in Amman, Jordan
- Began research with partners on the NIFA-funded Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project (OWCAP) project to support crop and livestock production and sustain the communities of the High Plains region
- Created “NRD Stories,” an oral history of Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts
- With FAO and the University of Manchester, DWFI developed AquaCrop-OS, which enables rapid analysis of crop yield response to water
- Roberto Lenton transitioned to a faculty role and Peter G. McCornick, deputy director of the International Water Management Institute, accepted and assumed the position of Executive Director, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute.
- Became a founding member of the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG), an international partnership, hosted by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, aimed at addressing water scarcity in agriculture
2017
- DWFI and Faculty Fellow research projects expand across the Midwest, California and 77 countries
- DWFI hosted the 2017 Water for Food Global Conference, “Water for Food Security: From Local Lessons to Global Impacts”
- Entered into a new partnership with the Association of Irrigators and Farmers of the State of Bahia, Brazil (AIBA) to support the sustainable expansion of irrigated agriculture in southwest Bahia, exploring the region’s Urucuia Aquifer System as the water source
- Developed a joint EDF/DWFI report to identify the best management practices for incentive-based groundwater management in the Western United States
- Co-led a project with Faculty Fellows using VRI, drones and remote sensing technology to help farmers increase food production, while conserving water and energy, using a combination of soil water content monitoring, remote sensing from drones and satellite systems and modeling
- CK Duryea joined the institute as its first director of development
- NWC coordinated research targeting the shallow vadose zone, or unsaturated zone, to gain insights on how nitrates accumulate and move through groundwater. The data will help cities and NRDs learn how to manage and mitigate contamination
- DWFI invested in a new Water for Food Processing Initiative to help the private sector optimize water use in food processing and reduce waste in food, water and energy
- In partnership with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), DWFI began development of an agricultural drought monitoring and early warning system for India
2018
- Updated the strategic plan for FY2018-2023
- Leaders of the World Bank, USDA and USAID invited DWFI to co-convene a conference, hosted at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., focused on expanding sustainable irrigation in developing countries
- Became a founding partner in the formation of the Irrigation Innovation Consortium, a strategic collaborative research effort designed to accelerate development of water and energy efficient irrigation technologies
- Collaborated with students in the Raikes School Design Studio at UNL to develop new data analysis and visualization tools in a farm database dashboard
- A Nebraska delegation of university and DWFI leaders and faculty visited Bahia, Brazil, to collaborate with AIBA, focusing on achieving a significant economic impact and improved water and food security in Bahia
- NWC and WSL initiated the “Know Your Well” program, an educational project started at NU that engages high school students and teachers in sampling and testing groundwater quality
- With FAO, planned and convened the water for agriculture track at the World Water Forum in Brazil
- Executive Director McCornick was elected to the World Water Council’s board of governors
- Received a significant gift from the Ivanhoe Foundation, which is eligible for matching additional gifts for student research
- Redesigned the DWFI website, creating a more visually compelling and mobile-friendly design
2019
- Hosted the 2019 Water for Food Global Conference, “Water for a Hungry World: Innovation in Water and Food Security”
- Completed the Nebraska Water Productivity Report, which reflects significant improvements in yield per drop of water used for crops, livestock and biofuels over the past three decades
- Participated in flood management workshops to address Nebraska’s historic flooding and its impact on agriculture and water quality
- Further developed a flux tower system across Nebraska to provide real-time ET data to farmers, NRD managers, scientists and others through the Parallel 41 website
- Initiated research in the Bazile Groundwater Management Area (BGMA) in Northeast Nebraska, working with four Natural Resources Districts (NRDs) to mitigate and manage nitrate contamination
- Collaborated with the Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources to research irrigation business models in Rwanda, collecting data to support scalable solutions
- Worked with Raikes School students to solve connectivity problems with soil moisture smart meters. The students’ well-designed solution won the Raikes School Platinum Project award for best project
- Developed “SEEDS,” an upper-class learning community at UNL focused on global entrepreneurship, agriculture and sustainable development, which included a three-week experiential study trip to Rwanda
- Produced a video featuring donors Robert and Karla Baltzell and their Student Innovator Fund, which garnered more than 8,200 views on Facebook alone
- Published an interactive map called UNDA, providing high-level information about projects, including description, focus area, status, start and end dates, country and people involved