“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science. USDA employs over 5,000 researchers to advance that science, and provides grants to many times that number of researchers outside the Department. As research becomes more interdisciplinary, it can be hard to find collaborators outside your own area. USDA VIVO provides a powerful Web search tool for connecting researchers, research projects and outcomes, and others with relationships to the research. The idea is to link researchers with peers and potential collaborators. VIVO makes it possible to quickly identify scientific expertise to address a variety of food- and agriculture-related issues or to rapidly mobilize a response on a scientific issue. USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Economic Research Service (ERS), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) are the first five USDA agencies to participate in VIVO. The National Agricultural Library (NAL), part of ARS, hosts the USDA VIVO. All information contained in USDA’s VIVO is public information.”