By Ashley Stender | February 26, 2026

Scientific discovery is central to C-SPIRIT’s mission, but discovery alone does not ensure impact. As researchers identify bioactive compounds and move them through metabolite discovery, synthesis, testing, and evaluation, another set of questions runs alongside the science: Will these innovations be accepted by the public? Do they align with the needs and expectations of growers, advisors, and supply chains? What social, economic, or political factors might influence whether a promising solution is ultimately used by farmers?

“It’s a real risk to go through this entire research pipeline with so many fabulous researchers and end up with something that may not be useful from a producer standpoint,” says Molly Sears, C-SPIRIT’s Broader Impacts Lead. Her work centers on what she describes as “acceptability, enthusiasm, and adoptability.” In other words, Broader Impacts ensures that innovation at C-SPIRIT is not only scientifically robust, but positioned for real-world use.

Broader Impacts works closely with C-SPIRIT’s Stakeholder Board to ensure that external perspectives inform the center’s research direction. Through regular meetings and an annual Summit, stakeholders provide input that is shared with research teams across the six aims as compounds move through discovery, biological synthesis, field testing, and environmental evaluation. The team synthesizes this feedback, examines how emerging products align with supply chain expectations, and studies how trust and risk perception may shape their use. This structure reinforces C-SPIRIT’s commitment to responsible innovation in sustainable agriculture and plant resilience.

An Economist Thinking Across Systems

For Molly Sears, questions about adoption begin long before a product reaches the field. Her research asks how producers interpret risk, how trust is built or eroded across supply chains, and what economic and institutional pressures shape decisions about new technology. “I’m an economist by training, but an interdisciplinarian by trade,” she explains. “I’m really interested in what gets people to the adoption phase.”

Sears is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, where her work examines how agricultural innovations move from development to use. That focus extends beyond technical performance. She explains, “It’s not just about whether something works as a technological solution, but also, will people accept it? And what are the political, social, economic barriers to engaging with new technology?”

Within C-SPIRIT, that perspective shapes how progress is evaluated alongside scientific milestones. From the outset, the Center sought to embed social science expertise parallel to metabolite discovery, biological synthesis, field testing, and environmental evaluation. Sears’s role ensures that feasibility, trust, and alignment with stakeholder needs are considered as research advances. 

Listening Early and Often

To operationalize this approach, the Broader Impacts team established a Stakeholder Board to discuss and provide feedback on C-SPIRIT’s research direction. The board brings together farmers, industry leaders, extension agents, and others to identify key vulnerabilities affecting the acceptability of bioactive compounds in agriculture. “Getting feedback on the research pipeline process to make sure that what we’re doing is going to be aligned,” Sears explains, “is central to the Broader Impacts effort.”

In November 2025, the Center hosted its Stakeholder Board Annual Summit in Lansing, Michigan, with more than 50 participants joining in person and via Zoom. Stakeholders engaged with research teams across the aims, discussed methodological approaches, and provided input on how early-stage discoveries connect to production, regulation, and market realities. “We got feedback on methodology. We got feedback on every stage of the pipeline,” Sears notes.

Discussions also centered on how stakeholder input should influence research direction. Board members emphasized integrating practical constraints directly into project planning, including crop specificity, application feasibility, regulatory pathways, and commercial realities. Afterwards, the Stakeholder Board developed a set of center-wide recommendations designed to strengthen feedback loops between stakeholders and researchers, improve cross-Aim coordination, and treat engagement as a formal component of the research process.

Beyond advisory meetings, the Broader Impacts team engages with agricultural communities through conference participation and industry events, including the First Great Lakes Plant Science Conference and the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, and Farm Market EXPO. These conversations provide additional context about current production challenges and evolving priorities.

Mapping Trust, Risk, and Adoption

Stakeholder engagement is complemented by systematic research on trust and risk perception. The Broader Impacts team is conducting what Sears describes as “trust and vulnerability mapping across the different dimensions of the research pipeline,” identifying projected risks and areas of potential concern among groups not yet fully represented in early data collection, including producers and consumers.

“Really, we’re risk mapping the various kinds of products across the entire supply chain,” she explains. By analyzing how different stakeholders perceive risk, the team can identify where communication strategies, product attributes, or engagement efforts may need adjustment as research progresses. Early assessments planned include surveys of board members and analyses of risk perceptions “from the researcher side of things across the globe,” reflecting C-SPIRIT’s international scope.

“We’re really trying to understand the processes by which new technology gets adopted,” Sears says. This work contributes not only to C-SPIRIT’s internal planning, but also to a broader understanding of responsible agricultural innovation.

The Challenges of Representation and Timing

Integrating stakeholder perspectives into active research takes time. In its first year, the Broader Impacts team focused on building relationships within the Stakeholder Board and creating space for open dialogue before expanding into broader data collection. Conversations around trust, vulnerability, and misinformation have helped establish a foundation for future surveys and more targeted engagement.

Reaching producers at scale presents additional challenges. “Producers are hard to get in touch with, and survey response rates tend to be quite low,” Sears acknowledges. At the same time, many of the technologies within C-SPIRIT are still developing. Without field-ready products or fully realized datasets, stakeholders can only respond in general terms. “I think we just need a little bit more time to build trust so producers are willing to accept our new technology,” she explains.

As research advances and applications become clearer, engagement efforts can shift toward more concrete questions of feasibility and fit. For now, expanding representation and strengthening feedback mechanisms remain central priorities. “Those are the big ways to really improve on getting accurate and valid producer feedback,” Sears says.

Toward Responsible Innovation

By embedding stakeholder input, vulnerability mapping, and risk analysis into each stage of research, the Broader Impacts team ensures new bioactive compounds are evaluated alongside regulatory, economic, and supply chain realities.

Sears’s guiding question remains consistent: what moves a technology from possibility to adoption? By surfacing concerns early and aligning research plans with stakeholder priorities, C-SPIRIT reduces the gap between laboratory discovery and field-level implementation and reinforces its commitment to responsible innovation in sustainable agriculture.