MORRIS — The UMN Southwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (SWRSDP) is seeking project ideas that contribute to the vibrant future of southwest Minnesota and connect them with UMN resources.

Project ideas can be in any of these four areas: agriculture and food systems, tourism and resilient communities, natural resources, and clean energy. As a part of University of Minnesota Extension, the Regional Sustainable Partnerships (RSDP) works to find UMN students, faculty, programs and funding to help complete projects.

The SWRSDP can provide additional funds of $2,000 to $20,000 range to your project funds and/or help find other sources of funding. Project timelihttp://www.extension.umn.edu/rsdp/nes can be a few months or a couple of years.

In recent years, SWRSDP has supported a wide variety of projects including: a housing assessment, a public art project, developing a design for the redevelopment of central business district property, a field study of flora and fauna, and starting a non-profit community garden. You can learn more about these projects and other work of the SWRSDP on the RSDP website at (click Southwest link).

Individuals and groups from a 27 county region (including Brown, Cottonwood, McLeod, Redwood, Sibley, Renville and Watonwan Counties) in SW Minnesota are eligible to apply for support from the SWRSDP. To apply for this current round of project support, please send us your project idea by filling out our application form. We call our form the “Idea Brief” and you can find a link to the form on the front page of our website next to the light bulb! You can also contact David Fluegel at fluegel@umn.edu or 320.349.0498 for more information or with questions.

Applications are due by the end of the day on June 30, 2017. Applications will be reviewed by the end of July and applicants will be notified shortly thereafter.

The SWRSDP is one of five Regional Partnerships across the state that connects local communities and citizens with resources from the University of Minnesota.  Each of the five Regional Partnerships (Southeast, Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Central) is citizen-driven, building community-university partnerships that create new opportunities and solve problems in Greater Minnesota.