Cynthia Sagers has been appointed interim associate vice provost for research and economic development. Sagers, who will retain her faculty status in the department of biological sciences, began her position on Monday and will report to Jim Rankin, vice provost for research and economic development.

In her role, Sagers will help promote faculty in research positions by identifying funding opportunities and working with them to develop grant proposals. She will also represent the University of Arkansas at state and federal agencies and consortiums, such as the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium and the National Science Foundation’s Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, known as EPSCoR.

“Dr. Sagers is a greatly respected member of the University of Arkansas faculty and her experience in working with federal and international agencies will strongly assist in building the campus’ research enterprise,” Rankin said.

Sagers, a professor of biological sciences who has taught at the U of A since 1993, returned to Fayetteville this fall after serving a two-year appointment as a program officer at the Office of International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va. In that capacity she worked with researchers and educators to leverage U.S. research funding for large-scale, international collaborative research efforts.

“I’m very excited about bringing my research expertise as well as my experience as program officer at NSF to the campus community,” Sagers said. “My job is to promote and encourage nationally competitive research on campus. There is some really great research in the works at Arkansas.”

Sagers’ expertise is in plant evolution and plant population. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has funded her research into the effects of genetically modified crops on native plant species. She is currently the principle investigator on a $520,000, five-year EPA/USDA grant on a project that seeks to identify emerging challenges to agriculture as a result of changes in climate and patterns of land use.

In addition to the Agriculture Department, Sagers has secured grants from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, National Research Council and Arkansas Department of Higher Education, among others. She has taught field courses in Costa Rica with the Organization of Tropical Studies, of which the University of Arkansas is a member.

A native of Maquoketa, Iowa, Sagers received her doctoral degree from the University of Utah and bachelor’s degrees in both biology and general sciences from the University of Iowa.