What is NERA?
NERA is a formal coalition of Directors of State Agricultural Experiment Stations (SAES) for the Northeastern Region of the United States of America. Three other associations serve the needs of the Southern region, Western Region, and the North Central Region. NERA's member institutions are mostly, but not exclusively, associated with colleges of agriculture at land-grant universities. They are members of NERA by virtue of their stature as participants in the Federal-state partnership in agricultural science, and thus they receive funding to support research under that mandate. Federal and state dollars are matched to carry out the research at the member institutions in broad areas. NERA primarily supports multistate collaborations. This sharing of Regional Research (capitalized to denote statuatory mandate) responsibilities first started informally, but soon evolved into a very formal process that is now supported with a small staff in the Office of the Executive Director (O.E.D.). The present Office of the Executive Director (O.E.D.) is located at the USDA-ARS, Beltsville Area Office.
Administratively, the O.E.D. is under the University of Maryland at College Park, in the Office of the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Thirty-three Directors from the Associations 15 member-stations participate in the Association's activities, and the three annual meetings of the Association.