History & Mission

HISTORY

In 1999, the Ohio Plant Biotechnology Consortium (OPBC) formally solicited Ohio's Academic Institutions for research proposals that would enhance Ohio's farming community and agricultural industry. The Consortium was formed in order to encourage the development of an Ohio-based cooperative community to optimize communications between biotechnologists and the agricultural industries and to minimize duplication among state funded universities. A key goal of the Consortium was to strike a balance between the basic science of gene discovery and the exploitation of this information for the benefit of the Ohio agriculture business community. In order to direct this consortium's efforts to tasks beneficial to Ohio's agricultural industry sixteen areas were targeted for research exploration with multi investigator proposals from two or more institution encouraged.

As a consequence, faculty at Youngstown State and Cleveland State Universities developed a collaborative research effort that would support OPBC's mission and objectives. Together, they submitted a proposal to study the role of indigeneous yeast in the fermentation of grape must from Vitis vinifera varietals. The proposal was funded and initiated the support for our efforts in enology research.

In Ohio, the largest agricultural crops under cultivation are corn, soybean, and wheat with each having extensive research programs underway throughout the state. However, in northeast Ohio along Lake Erie another important crop is harvested - grapes. In 1983, Lake Erie was approved by BATF as an American Viticultural Appellation (AVA) based on its unique and identifiable growing conditions. It is due to the proximity of this promising grape-growing region that the idea of a Center for Enology Research began to evolve.

In 1996, Youngstown State University initiated a competitive grants program entitled 'Presidential Academic Center of Excellence in Research' (PACER) administered by the School of Graduate Studies. When the opportunity to submit a proposal to this program presented itself in the fall of 1999, faculty in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry developed a series of research projects that were both collaborative and interdisciplinary, as well as, inter-institutional. Each project focused specifically on a research priority proposed by the American Viticulture & Enology Research Network (AVERN). The proposal was accepted and awarded with an initial three-year grant beginning on July 1, 2000.

In order to combine these individual initiatives under a common umbrella the Lake Erie Enology Research Center was established on March 16th, 2001.

MISSION

The mission of the Lake Erie Enology Research Center is to enhance the health and competitiveness of Lake Erie grape and wine producers via basic and applied research in partnership with the local grape-wine industry following research priorities of the American Viticulture and Enology Research (AVERN). The Center actively seeks cooperation with industry and private parties committed to its objectives.