ESCOP

The Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy (ESCOP) is the representative governing body of the Experiment Station Section (ESS), a unit of the APLU Commission on Food, Environment, and Renewable Resources (CFERR), Board on Agriculture Assembly (BAA). ESCOP handles continuing business, organization, and policy issues on behalf of the state agricultural experiment station directors and administrators. The ESCOP also provides liaison representatives to a variety of other committees, agencies, associations, and organizations. These representatives are appointed by the Chair of ESCOP after consultation with the Executive Committee.

Each 1862 agricultural experiment station director and 1890 research director participates in a regional association: Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NERA), the official representative body of the agricultural experiment station directors in the Northeast Region; North Central Regional Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NCRA), the official representative body of the agricultural experiment station directors in the North Central Region; Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (SAAESD), the official representative body of the agricultural experiment station directors in the Southern Region; Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (WAAESD), the official representative body of the agricultural experiment station directors in the Western Region; and Association of Research Directors (ARD), the official representative body of the agricultural research administrators of the 1890 Land-grant institutions. All regional associations are affiliated with APLU through the Experiment Station Section and are represented on ESCOP, but are fundamentally independent organizations.