Background: Maryland Cooperative Extension (MCE) and Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) are joining forces to capitalize on the expertise and research interests of the two units to become more competitive for integrated research funding. To that end, MCE and MAES solicited integrated research proposals that are translational in nature (i.e., taking scientific investigation or the discovery of knowledge to application, proof of concept, and/or educational programs with identified learning outcomes that allow the end-user to make informed decisions).