Established amidst the bloodshed of the Civil War, land-grant universities, together with the associated agricultural experiment stations and cooperative extension services, have played a crucial role in democratizing scientific knowledge and addressing intertwined educational, environmental, economic, and democratic challenges within the USA. Indeed, they have arguably pioneered the idea of “usable science.” Today, the urgent challenges of the Anthropocene demand a more robust relationship between scientific research and on-the-ground action, strong networks sharing local lessons globally, and channels for injecting global, long-term perspectives into the noise of short-termism. The land-grant experience provides lessons for “Anthropocene universities” seeking to tackle these challenges, including the importance of (1) establishing or expanding university-based boundary organizations akin to cooperative extension, (2) incentivizing the integration of engagement into the university’s research, teaching, and service missions, (3) centering values of democracy, justice, equity, and inclusion in engagement, and (4) cooperating across institutions and sectors. Given the urgency of fully engaging academic institutions as players and connectors in the real-world challenges of addressing climate change and biodiversity loss, there is little time to waste.

在南北战争的流血冲突中建立的，赠地大学以及相关的农业实验站和合作推广服务，在使科学知识民主化和解决美国内部相互交织的教育，环境，经济和民主挑战方面发挥了关键作用。确实，他们可以说是“可用科学”的先驱。如今，人类世迫在眉睫的挑战要求在科学研究与实地行动之间建立更稳固的关系，建立强有力的网络，在全球范围内共享本地经验教训，并为将全球性的长期观点注入短期主义的噪音提供渠道。授予土地的经验为“人类世间大学”提供了经验教训，以应对这些挑战，包括（1）建立或扩展类似于合作社扩展的大学边界组织的重要性；（2）鼓励将参与整合到大学的研究，教学和服务使命中；（3）以民主，正义，公平为中心的价值观，包括参与度，以及（4）跨机构和部门进行合作。由于迫切需要让学术机构充分参与应对气候变化和生物多样性丧失的现实世界挑战，成为参与者和联系者，因此几乎没有时间可以浪费。（4）跨机构和部门的合作。由于迫切需要让学术机构充分参与应对气候变化和生物多样性丧失的现实世界挑战，成为参与者和联系者，因此几乎没有时间可以浪费。（4）跨机构和部门的合作。由于迫切需要让学术机构充分参与应对气候变化和生物多样性丧失的现实世界挑战，成为参与者和联系者，因此几乎没有时间可以浪费。