North Carolina as a state has a long history of working closely with her sister state- Moldova. Following
that tradition, CALS has actively engaged in forming strong partnership with universities and
government institutes in Moldova. Partnership with Moldova, and especially Technical University of
Moldova (TUM) and their Ministry of Agriculture has been strengthened by reciprocal visits Raleigh and
Chisinau. For the past few years, through a program funded by the US government, teams from
Moldova have been able to visit NC State University in Raleigh, meet with researchers, administrators at
the college and the university level, visit research and extension facilities around the state. Similarly,
groups of CALS faculty have traveled to Moldova to meet TUM faculty and staff in person, visit various
facilities of the university, and meet with industry stakeholders and relevant government authorities. In
2023, a memorandum of understanding was signed between NC State and TUM to expand the
partnership to include agriculture. By formalizing the partnership, both NC State and TUM were able to
facilitate workshops in both Moldova and Raleigh where experts from both sides came together to
identify specific needs in Moldovan agriculture where CALS faculty can lend their expertise. In the
process, they were also able to identify relevant stakeholders who should to involved in the planning
and implementation of various projects targeted at rural development in Moldova. In addition to
collaborating with experts from TUM, NC State has also hosted high level government official and
administrator from the Alecu Russo Bălți State University. Through these visits, the visitors were able to
learn about the interconnected nature of academics, research and extension functions of CALS as part of
a land-grant university. They also visited research stations and county extension centers to gain insight
into the extension system of North Carolina. Our goal is for these visits is to identify areas of
collaboration that can be pursued collaboratively by NC State and TUM and other relevant Moldovan
stakeholders.