The PIE Center provides trusted research and strategic recommendations by taking an interdisciplinary approach to issues analysis, message effectiveness and evaluation, as well as public opinion and policy formation and change.
Healthy Gulf, Healthy Communities
The five-year, $6.5 million grant from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences that includes UF and three other universities focuses on the organizations and communities impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Researchers are focused on seafood safety, individual and community resiliency, as well as community-based social marketing, outreach and engagement.
Public opinion surveys
Faculty and staff conduct four public opinion trend panels each year that focus on key issues in Florida: water quantity and quality, immigration, endangered species and food production.
The surveys will repeat annually to track changes in public opinion. The results from the water and immigration surveys were published earlier this year. Information about endangered species opinions are due out in September.
Additionally, PIE Center researchers asked Floridians for their opinions of public higher education in conjunction with the University of Florida’s 150th anniversary celebration of the federal legislation that created the land-grant university system.
Perceptions of local food
Following national trends, the PIE Center partnered with the Florida Specialty Crop Foundation and the UF/IFAS Department of Food and Resource Economics to find a clear answer to what consumers think about and define as locally grown food.
The two-year project, funded by a Specialty Crop Block Grant, included an economic impact survey and focus groups with consumers, small farmers and Extension professionals.
Gulf Safe seafood
Following the 2010 BP oil spill, PIE Center researchers found that Florida consumers want to know where their seafood comes from but don’t want to see the word “Gulf” and be reminded of the disaster, according to focus groups conducted for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
PIE Center researchers measured consumer perceptions of potential messaging strategies related to the Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing’s Gulf Safe seafood campaign in hopes of increasing the purchase and consumption of Florida Gulf seafood and reassure the public of its safety.
UF/IFAS Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology
Intrigued by an opportunity to change its branding identity, CLCE asked the PIE Center to perform a communications audit and series of focus groups in order to understand stakeholders’ current perceptions of CLCE, as well as new branding ideas. The two centers partnered on a successful legislative budget request last year.
Gulf Citrus Growers Association
In the first of two phases of a research partnership with the Gulf Citrus Growers Association, the PIE Center found that 94 percent of survey respondents within a five-county area in southwest Florida believed the agricultural industry was important to the region.
Researchers asked about perceptions of local agriculture, including the environmental and economic impacts of the industry. Next, participants in focus groups will help determine and develop effective messaging strategies for agricultural leaders in the area.
