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The Diverse Corn Belt (DCB) Project is a multi-state, multi-disciplinary USDA-funded effort launched in 2021 to evaluate how diversifying the dominant corn and soybean system can increase ecological, economic, and social resilience across the Midwest. Now in its fifth year, the project has generated robust insights from on-farm research, market analysis, modeling tools, and deep stakeholder engagement.

This breakout session demonstrates how a single, low-barrier touchpoint — a roundtable presentation on DCB at an internal Purdue Extension professional development retreat — catalyzed a partnership that would not have otherwise existed. This roundtable presentation set in motion a collaborative field day series co-hosted by campus specialists, county educators, and the Indiana Organic Network (ION), bringing research results directly back to the farms where the work took place. These events also created space for direct interaction between farmers and university research specialists, giving campus faculty a platform to discuss emerging research while hearing firsthand the questions and realities shaping on-farm decision making. 

Participants will leave with a replicable framework for using regional research projects as a bridge between campus and county Extension, including strategies for identifying connection points within existing professional development events, engaging farmer networks as co-hosts, and designing field days that advance both research and relationship goals. 

Campus-county silos are a persistent challenge across cooperative Extension systems nationwide. This session offers a concrete, low-cost example of how intentional visibility of campus research within internal professional development spaces can unlock partnerships, energize county educators, and deliver meaningful local impact from large-scale regional research.