What is Extension?
NC State extends research and learning to our communities in many ways.
The word extension can be confusing. NC State is a member of the federal Cooperative Extension System. However, there are also many university departments who extend their research and learning into our communities without a formal connection to NC State Extension. Such programs are sometimes known as extension programs or sometimes even lowercase e extension.
The Office of Outreach and Engagement advocates for and connects all practitioners and forms of community engagement at NC State, including both extension and Extension!
Learn more about the different uses of extension below.
“Lowercase e” extension
Wiktionary defines education extension as a noun: university programs that are targeted at the broader community whose participants are not full-time enrolled students.
There are many programs at NC State that use the word extension. These programs may use the term as part of their formal name or as a more general noun within their program portfolio.
The examples below demonstrate what extension looks like in different parts of the university.
Industrial Extension Services
https://ies.ncsu.edu
Industry Extension Services is the extension and outreach team for the College of Engineering and administers the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership for North Carolina. IES supports all North Carolina businesses by providing connections, networking with industry experts and helping to identify the resources, tools and customized programs needed to increase productivity, efficiency, quality and profit. Services are often fee-based.
Zeis Textiles Extension
https://textiles.ncsu.edu/zte
Zeis Textiles Extension for Economic Development, known familiarly as Zeis Textiles Extension or ZTE, provides training and certification in textiles and programs for improvement and innovation, and serves the textile industry’s prototyping and pilot production needs in its five laboratories – spun yarn, knitting, weaving, dyeing and finishing, and physical testing.
Coastal and Marine Science
https://cmast.ncsu.edu/marinesciences/extension
From providing the necessary science to support effective fisheries management, to value-added seafood products, to best management practices for ensuring healthy water quality, NC State’s Coastal and Marine Science programs are helping people, animals and the environment at local, national and global scales to sustain and improve quality of life.
Plants for Human Health Institute
https://plantsforhumanhealth.ncsu.edu/extension-outreach
The STEM Education Extension program offers an online course to build a school garden with curriculum connections. The PhytoMedicine Extension program is working to “flip the script” in healthcare conversations between providers and patients.
Cooperative Extension System
The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture anchors a federal Cooperative Extension System with financial and programmatic support. NC State and and N.C. A&T State University are our state’s land-grant universities.
NC State Extension has 101 offices across the state
Under the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, our CES unit leads the program for the state and is branded as “NC State Extension.” Here and around the country, the program is often simply known as “Extension.”
