University of California, Merced

University of California, Merced, known as UC Merced, is a public research university in the San Joaquin Valley whose work includes agriculture, water and technology research for California's Central Valley. Its Valley Institute for Sustainability, Technology, and Agriculture, known as VISTA, brings researchers, students and industry partners together on sustainable agriculture, agrivoltaics (which pairs solar panels with crops), water management and agricultural technology. The Experimental Smart Farm, a UC Agricultural Experiment Station that operates under VISTA, provides 40 acres of instrumented cropland in Merced with sensor networks, power, connectivity, equipment, automated data collection and processing, and engineering and data science support. Researchers from UC Merced, other UC campuses and partner institutions can submit research proposals, and approved projects must follow the farm's safety training, scheduling and data-sharing requirements.