Our Endowment

Establishing The Center

The UC Fruit & Nut Research and Information Center Endowment Fund was established in 2002 to support our mission to aid in the coordination and dissemination of University of California research-based information, accomplishments, and statewide research and extension activities related to fruit and nut crops.

Our Endowment

The Center's initial funding came from a portion of sales by Foundation Plant Services of pistachio seeds generated from a UCB-1 pistachio tree in the research program of UCCE Specialist Louise Ferguson. The original cross of this tree was developed by Dr. Lee Ashworth of UC Berkeley, hence the name UCB-1. The interest generated from this endowment supports the following activities:

• Coordinating UC-generated and other fruit and nut crop information websites
• Facilitating internal communication among all UC personnel involved in fruit and nut research and extension
• Coordinating research-related conferences and meetings
• Providing hands-on training sessions that further our mission
• Determining fruit and nut crop research and industry needs, particularly those with cross-commodity application
• Hosting annual research coordination meetings involving UC liaison officers, commodity group research chairs and coordinators to facilitate research coordination among California fruit commodity groups and university programs
• Coordinating related grant application and project development, including the interactive chill calculator and harvest prediction modules
• Cooperating with other Research and Information Centers and programming support in pursuing our mission