Policy Impact
UC Davis is a leading institution in the pursuit of Sustainable Food Systems to address issues of sustainability, climate resilience, nutrition, equity, and food security.
Our campus is home to top-ranked programs in agricultural sciences, veterinary medicine, and nutrition science, as well as an internationally recognized program in Food Science and Technology. Grand Challenges at UC Davis serves to catalyze campus resources, expertise, and partnerships to amplify the University’s real-world impact on and pursuit of Sustainable Food Systems.
As part of this goal, Grand Challenges aims to measure the impact of UC Davis food systems research and compare that impact with peer universities. The analyses described below serve as an initial benchmarking of the campus’ policy impact on food systems at the state level and internationally.
Understanding UC Davis’ policy impact in its pursuit of Sustainable Food Systems is important for benchmarking the university’s progress and providing guidance to maximize the real-world impact. We analyzed policy citations of the University’s scholarly work and identified longstanding policy impact in the fields of:
Established Areas of Impact
- Land Use and Emissions
- Nutrition
- Food Security
- Crop Production
- Climate-Smart Agriculture
Emerging Areas of Impact
- Precision Agriculture
- Agricultural Technology
- Food Technology
- Alternative Protein
- Bioactives
These are the most influential UC Davis publications (2014-2024) based on policy citations:
For the full list of influential UC Davis publications (2014-2024) based on policy citations, most influential California policy documents that were shaped by UC Davis activities, and most influential FAO policy documents that were shaped by UC Davis activities, please download the Policy Impact Report.
Established and emerging impact areas
We maintained high policy impact in our long-running topics of influence and increased our annual growth rate for emerging areas of impact:
Sustainable Food Systems impact across the University of California campuses:
(Number of State of California policy documents related to Sustainable Food Systems that cite publications from the University of California campuses (2018-2022), with UC Davis displayed in gold)
Questions?
Please email our team at grandchallenges@ucdavis.edu
