Virginia Tech scientists are offering their services to public officials on a moment's notice to ensure the officials have research-based information upon which to make the best possible decisions.

"We want to serve the people of Virginia by quickly providing policy makers with accurate and reliable research-based information when they are facing complex scientific issues," said Andy Swiger, dean of Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "The agriculture industry along with all citizens will inevitably benefit because more and more issues involving agriculture -- many of them framed in emotional terms -- require sound information so public officials can make sound decisions."

The effort, called the Rapid Response Program, can bring into play a broad range of expertise tailored to specific situations.

Built around the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and Virginia Cooperative Extension, the program will be able to draw on faculty in the university's colleges of agriculture, Forestry and Wildlife Resources, Human Resources and Education, and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. In addition, faculty members at Virginia State University who are associated with the Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension will be involved.

"Our response to any given situation will be dictated by the circumstances surrounding it," Swiger said. "In that respect, this program will be very flexible. Our responses can range from simply giving a news reporter some perspective on an issue, to advising policy makers, to organizing a research effort to address a particular issue."

Judith Jones, associate director of Extension, is coordinating the program for all the colleges involved and said the program can be activated when needed.

"We have a number of standing teams that will keep track of certain issues," she said. "But we also have the flexibility to establish new teams when needed."

The standing teams include food safety, natural resources and water quality, biotechnology, tobacco, human and animal health, and intensive livestock.

In addition to faculty members keeping track of issues, Jones said she expects policy makers to call upon the program as it becomes more well known. She said the general public is invited to suggest issues that should be considered by contacting their local Extension offices.

The Rapid Response Program won't require any additional resources from the state. Instead, Swiger said, the program is a concrete manifestation of the investment by the state in the Plan to Serve Virginia's Agriculture, Human and Natural Resources. That plan is the blueprint for restoring the capabilities of the organizations taking part in this program that were lost during budget cuts in the early 1990s.

"This really isn't anything new for us," Swiger said. "Virginia's land-grant universities should respond to certain issues, and this is just a way to emphasize and formalize our response."