Regional Rural Development Centers

Advancing the Economic Health of Rural America

The Regional Rural Development Centers (RRDCs) are regionally focused centers hosted by four land-grant universities and funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to work with the nation’s land-grant university system to form innovative research and Extension partnerships in rural development.

Established by the Rural Development Act of 1972, each Center serves a U.S. region and seeks to strengthen the capacity of its region’s land-grant institutions to address a wide range of rural development issues unique to its region. Working individually and collectively, the RRDCs accomplish this by:

Convening research and/or Cooperative Extension teams around complex rural development issues
Building collaborative networks and partnerships
Serving as a regional hub for land-grant university partners across state lines
Leveraging a strong connection to federal resources
Generating data to better understand and address rural America's economic development problems
Providing potential solutions that communities can adapt to improve their situations
Translating university research to meet community needs
Responding to local needs
Facilitating community planning
Educating clientele at the local level

the Four Regional Rural Development Centers

Each Center serves a U.S. region and taps its land-grant university network to form innovative research and Extension partnerships in the area of rural development.

US map identifies the four RRDC regions & locates each Center.