Environmental Sciences

Limit: 1 //D. Sanyal (Environmental Science)

Duplicate, essentially duplicate or predominantly overlapping applications submitted simultaneously to both ORG and another NIFA program, such as OREI, in the same fiscal year is not allowed and will not be reviewed. NIFA will disqualify both applications if an applicant submits duplicate or multiple submissions.

NIFA requests applications for the Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program – ORG for FY 2024 and 2025 funding cycles, to solve critical organic agriculture issues, priorities, or problems.

The overall goal of the ORG program is to support the development and implementation of research, extension, and higher education programs to improve the competitiveness of U.S. organic livestock and crop producers, as well as those who are adopting organic practices.

No applicants  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Duplicate or multiple submissions are not allowed.

NIFA requests applications for the Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program for FY 2022 to enable colleges and universities to provide the quality of education necessary to produce baccalaureate or higher degree level graduates capable of strengthening the nation’s food and agricultural scientific and professional workforce.

The purpose of the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program, under assistance listing 10.217, is to strengthen institutional capacities, including curriculum, faculty, scientific instrumentation, instruction delivery systems, and student recruitment and retention, to respond to identified state, regional, national, or international educational needs in the food and agricultural sciences, or in rural economic, community, and business development.

Specifically, applications submitted to this grants program must state how the funded project will address the HEC Program Goals:
1. To strengthen institutional capacities, including curriculum, faculty, scientific instrumentation, instruction delivery systems, and student recruitment and retention, to respond to identified State, regional, national, or international educational needs in the food and agricultural sciences, or in rural economic, community, and business development;
2. To attract and support undergraduate and graduate students in order to educate the students in national need areas of the food and agricultural sciences, or in rural economic, community, and business development;
3. To facilitate cooperative initiatives between two or more eligible institutions, or between eligible institutions and units of State government or organizations in the private sector, to maximize the development and use of resources such as faculty, facilities, and equipment to improve food and agricultural sciences teaching programs, or teaching programs emphasizing rural economic, community, and business development;
4. To design and implement food and agricultural programs, or programs emphasizing rural economic, community, and business development, to build teaching, research, and extension capacity at colleges and universities having significant minority enrollments;
5. To conduct undergraduate scholarship programs to meet national and international needs for training food and agricultural scientists and professionals, or professionals in rural economic, community, and business development; and
6. To increase the number and diversity of students who will pursue and complete a postsecondary degree in the food and agricultural sciences.
7. To enhance the quality of instruction for baccalaureate degrees, master’s degrees, and first professional degrees in veterinary sciences, in order to help meet current and future workforce needs in the food and agricultural sciences.
8. To conduct graduate and postdoctoral fellowship programs to attract highly promising individuals to research or teaching careers in the food and agricultural sciences.

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Duplicate or multiple submissions are not allowed.

The Rural Health and Safety Education Program seeks to foster quality of life in rural communities by providing the essential knowledge necessary for successful programs of rural development, improving coordination among Federal agencies, other levels of government, and institutions and private organizations in rural areas, and developing and disseminating information about rural conditions.

Per the authorizing legislation described in Part I (A) of this RFA, the RHSE program addresses the health and well-being of rural America through supporting the development and/or implementation of projects focused on:
1. Individual and family health education programs with specified contents;
2. Rural health leadership development education programs to assist rural communities in developing health care services and facilities and assist community leaders and public officials in understanding their roles and responsibilities; and
3. Farm safety education programs to provide information and training to farm workers, timber harvesters, and farm families.

In FY 2024, NIFA is soliciting applications for RHSE in the area of Individual and Family Health Education.

Limit: 1 // L. Clark (Veterinary Medicine)

For RPE, duplicate or multiple submissions are not allowed. NIFA will disqualify both applications if an RPE applicant submits duplicate or multiple submissions. For EET, multiple submissions are allowed by different departments of eligible institutions.

Veterinarians play significant roles in assuring food and fiber animal health and wellbeing, food safety and security, public health, and producer profitability, especially in rural areas of the United States where mostlivestock production occurs. The VSGP, Assistance Listing 10.336 and its companion Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP), authorized by the National Veterinary Medical Services Act (NVMSA), were born out of concerns that long-term maldistributions in the veterinary workforce have left some rural communities with insufficient access to food/large animal veterinary services. The objective of the VSGP is to develop, implement, and sustain food animal veterinary services and relieve veterinarian shortage situations in the United States, which includes Insular Areas.

The purpose of VSGP is to complement the VMLRP to address this veterinary shortage problem through two types of grants.
1. Education, extension, and training (EET) grants are initiatives that will enable veterinarians, veterinary students, veterinary technicians, and veterinary technician students to gain specialized skills through formal coursework, clinical training, and practice enhancement to mitigate veterinary service shortages more effectively in the United States and Insular Areas.
2. Rural practice enhancement (RPE) grants ultimately bolster the capacity of a private clinic (with or without a veterinarian’s student loan repayment obligation) that can provide food/large animal veterinary services for a designated veterinarian shortage area.

 Institutionally Coordinated // Limit: 1 // A. Mostafa ( Cooperative extension - Maricopa County)

Duplicate or multiple submissions are not allowed.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is accepting applications for the Research Facilities Act Program (RFAP). This program supports the construction, alteration, acquisition, modernization, renovation, and/or remodeling of a research facility. Proposals must enhance the institution’s long-term impact on food and agricultural research and build on careful strategic planning.

RFAP seeks to strengthen the quality and expand the scope of fundamental and applied research at eligible institutions by providing them with opportunities to assist in the construction, alteration, acquisition, modernization, renovation, and/or remodeling of the facility that supports their research and research training goals.

Limit:1 // A. Mostafa (Maricopa County)

Beginning farmer education for adult and young audiences in the United States can generally be traced back to the advent of the 1862 and 1890 Morrill Land-Grant Acts. But, for the first time, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub .L. No. 110-234, Section 7410) appropriated $75 million for FY 2009 to FY 2012 to develop and offer education, training, outreach and mentoring programs to enhance the sustainability of the next generation of farmers.

The Agriculture Act of 2014 provided an additional $20 million per year for 2014 through 2018. The reasons for the renewed interest in beginning farmer and rancher programs are as follows: the rising average age of U.S. farmers; the 8% projected decrease in the number of farmers and ranchers between 2008 and 2018; and the growing recognition that new programs are needed to address the needs of the next generation of beginning farmers and ranchers.

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (aka the 2018 Farm Bill) reauthorized the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program and provides mandatory funds for which supports education, mentoring, and technical assistance initiatives for beginning farmers and ranchers.

The technical assistance webinar related to this FY 2024 funding opportunity will be scheduled soon. Please visit again for more information.

Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 1 // L. Folks (Semiconductor Strategy)

Applicant institutions are limited to no more than two pre-applications or applications as the lead institution.

The DOE SC program in Basic Energy Sciences (BES) announces a re-competition of the Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) program and encourages both new and renewal applications. Applications from multi-disciplinary teams will be required to propose discovery science and use-inspired basic research that addresses priority research directions and opportunities identified by a series of BES workshop and roundtable reports. The focus of the EFRC program is on fundamental scientific research, therefore applications to this FOA must not propose applied research and technology development activities.

BES is soliciting renewal applications for basic science in three topical areas: 1) Transformative manufacturing, 2) Quantum information science (QIS), and 3) Environmental management. BES is soliciting new applications for basic science in two topical areas: 1) Co-design of materials and processes to revolutionize microelectronics and/or QIS fabrication, and 2) Environmental management.

Limit: 2* // Tickets Available: 1

A. Gerlak (School of Geography, Development & Environment) - Project Area 1: Establish and maintain a regional Center of Excellence.

N. Gupta (Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences) - Sub to  Desert Research Institute (DRI) - Nevada.

*Under this competition, only one application can be submitted per applicant under a Project Area.

The EPA is soliciting applications from eligible entities to establish and maintain regional Centers of Excellence for new and emerging stormwater control infrastructure technologies, with the goal of improving the effectiveness, cost efficiency, and protection of public safety and water quality. The EPA is also soliciting applications from eligible entities to create and maintain a national electronic clearinghouse to centrally collect and distribute the work of the Centers of Excellence. For the purposes of this announcement, “regional” or “geographical region” means consisting of two or more states.

The EPA is soliciting applications from eligible applicants in two Project Areas, as described below. Under this competition, only one application can be submitted per applicant under a Project Area. If an applicant submits an application under Project Area 1, they may then submit a separate application under Project Area 2. That is, an applicant cannot submit an application for Project Area 2 without submitting an application for Project Area 1. Each application submitted under this announcement must address one, and only one, of the Project Areas described below. The cover page of each application package must clearly indicate the Project Area addressed in the application. While the EPA intends to make awards in all Project Areas, the EPA reserves the right to make more than one award in a Project Area and/or make no awards in a Project Area.

Project Areas:

Project Area 1: Establish and maintain a regional Center of Excellence.
The EPA is soliciting applications to establish regional Centers of Excellence that will: i) conduct research on new and emerging stormwater control infrastructure technologies, including stormwater and sewer overflow reduction, other approaches to water resource enhancement, alternative funding approaches, and other environmental, economic, and social benefits; ii) provide technical assistance to state, Tribal, and local governments to assist with the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of stormwater control infrastructure projects that use innovative technologies; and iii) collaborate with regional institutions of higher education and private and public organizations, including community-based public-private partnerships and other stakeholders.

Project Area 2: Create and maintain a national electronic clearinghouse.
If an applicant submits an application under Project Area 1, they may then submit a separate application under Project Area 2. Under Project Area 2, the EPA is soliciting applications to create and maintain a national electronic clearinghouse. Applications should describe how they will develop, operate, and maintain a national electronic clearinghouse that contains information relating to new and emerging stormwater control infrastructure technologies and posts information from the other Centers of Excellence. The national electronic clearinghouse should be populated with research, findings, technical assistance, recommendations, best practices, and outreach (e.g., trainings, webinars, fact sheets) from each Center of Excellence and promoted to other organizations to expand the availability of water technical assistance, including to disadvantaged and underserved communities.

Limit: 1 // J. Farkas  (University of Arizona Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities)

Only one application can be submitted per applicant, who is defined as a lead applicant as found in 7 CFR 4282.1112(b). If two applications are submitted by the same lead applicant, both applications will be deemed ineligible for funding.

The Rural Innovation Stronger Economy (RISE) Grant Program offers grant assistance to create and augment high-wage jobs, accelerate the formation of new businesses, support industry clusters and maximize the use of local productive assets in eligible low-income rural areas.

The RISE project must serve a rural region small enough to allow close collaboration among partners. It also must include important elements of the region’s prioritized industry cluster (concentrations of related industries). Grant amounts are awarded competitively with a minimum of $500,000 and a maximum grant amount of $2,000,000.

 Limit: 2 // G. Davidowitz (Entomology), F. Duca (Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences)

Two proposals total per eligible institution.

The Equipment Grants Program (EGP) serves to increase access to shared-use special purpose equipment/instruments for fundamental and applied research for use in the food and agricultural sciences programs at institutions of higher education, including State Cooperative Extension Systems. The program seeks to strengthen the quality and expand the scope of fundamental and applied research at eligible institutions, by providing them with opportunities to acquire one shared-use piece of equipment/instrument that supports their research, research training, and extension goals and may be too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NIFA grant programs. EGP grants are not intended to replace requests for equipment in individual project applications. The program emphasizes shared-use instrumentation that will enhance the capabilities of researchers, educators, and extension specialists both within and outside the proposing organization.

Proposals to the EGP must involve acquisition of a single, well-integrated piece of equipment/instrument. Well-integrated means that the ensemble of equipment that defines the instrument enables specific fundamental or applied research experiments in the food and agricultural sciences, including data science and data systems; separating or removing an element or component of such an integrated instrument would preclude that research from occurring or succeeding. An instrument acquired with support from EGP is expected to be fully operational by the conclusion of the first year of the project.