Plant invasion has emerged as a cross-disciplinary issue regularly involving ecologists and weed scientists. However, the diverse views that ecologists and weed scientists possess have led to different priorities and management strategies. Ecologists have tended to emphasize long-term system trends as modified by natural rather than human disturbances and management goals that often focus on structure, function, and biodiversity of ecosystems rather than economics or management of commodity production systems. By contrast, weed scientists have tended to emphasize short-term population trends as engineered by humans and management goals that focus on the production (i.e., yield) of rarified, highly controlled systems. Spawned by a number of recent symposia and workshops, a new approach to invasion biology has emerged that emphasizes ecological weed management. Such an approach recognizes the importance of fundamental ecological research that can be strategically tied to the management of both highly engineered and more natural systems. USDA’s extramural grant program, the Biology of Weedy and Invasive Species in Agroecosystems, has led the effort to combine weed science and ecology as a means of addressing the management of invasive species. Over its 17-year history, the program has supported more than 350 teams on funding of more than $50 million. The purpose of this session is to showcase the more recent projects supported by the program. Discussion will focus on: (1) how to integrate research, education, and extension to achieve management goals; and (2) how a portfolio of individual projects can collectively contribute to the long-term program goal of developing ecologically and economically rational strategies for weed management, control, and elimination.