OARS funding Agriculture

As part of our mission supporting farmers and ranchers, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides extensive education and outreach for producers. This typically involves public meetings, mailings, news releases, and interactions with individual producers seeking additional information or to enroll in a program. However, there remains a need for additional outreach and education that could benefit potential participants in FSA's portfolio of programs. 

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems.

Beginning farmer education for adult and young audiences in the United States can be generally traced back to the advent of the 1862 and the 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 purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas: Research in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods to improve crop characteristics; Efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators; Efforts to improve production efficiency, handling and processing, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing); new innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening; and methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production efficiency, handling and processing of specialty crops.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting proposals from eligible applicants to provide support for training and technical assistance activities to build the capacity of state and tribal officials and nongovernmental stakeholders in the Clean Water Act (CWA) Sections 303(d), 305(b), TMDL Programs, the Nonpoint Source (CWA Section 319) Program, and Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia related activities. 

The purpose of the BRAG program is to support the generation of new information that will assist Federal regulatory agencies in making science-based decisions about the effects of introducing into the environment genetically engineered organisms (GE), including plants, microorganisms (including fungi, bacteria, and viruses), arthropods, fish, birds, mammals and other animals excluding humans.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), announces the availability of up to $10 million in competitive grants to assist communities with extremely high energy costs. The grant funds may be used to acquire, construct, or improve energy generation, transmission, or distribution facilities serving communities where average annual residential expenditure for home energy exceeding 275 percent of the national average. Eligible projects also include on-grid and off-grid renewable energy projects and implementation of energy efficiency, and energy conservation projects for eligible communities.

 The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announces the availability of approximately $63 million in grant funds to solely enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery crops (including floriculture). State departments of agriculture interested in obtaining grant program funds are invited to submit applications to AMS. State departments of agriculture, meaning agencies, commissions, or departments of a State government responsible for agriculture within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are eligible to apply. Please contact your local State department of agriculture if you are not eligible to apply. State departments of agriculture are encouraged to conduct outreach regarding the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program - Farm Bill to specialty crop stakeholders, socially disadvantaged, and beginning farmers and conduct a competitive grant proposal process. State department of agriculture contacts and state requests for proposals can be found at www.ams.usda.gov/scbgp. Applications from State departments of agriculture must be submitted by July 8, 2015.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), hereby announce their interest in receiving applications for genomics- based research that will lead to the improved use of biomass and plant feedstocks for the production of fuels such as ethanol or renewable chemical feedstocks.

The Ag/NRM Project is the main vehicle within the USAID/Ghana Feed the Future strategy to address issues of environment and natural resource management and will focus on increasing rural wealth, nutrition and climate change adaptation

This AU$3 million challenge calls for innovators, entrepreneurs, designers, NGOs and academics to rethink advances in aquaculture to provide solutions that ensure both sustainable development and environmental sustainability.

DOE?s mission and strategic goals include promoting U.S. energy security by providing reliable, clean, and affordable energy and strengthening U.S. technological leadership and economic competitiveness through advancements in science and technology. The mission and goals of the Bioenergy Technologies Office within DOE?s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy include the development and transformation of renewable biomass resources into commercially viable, higher-performance biofuels and advancing the domestic bioenergy industry in support of the renewable fuel goals under EISA 2007.

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; or the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of disease transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of either terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to involve the public health research community, including for example, epidemiologists, physicians, veterinarians, food scientists, social scientists, entomologists, pathologists, virologists, or parasitologists with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.

The following programs have due dates that fall between October 1 - 25, 2013, and these dates are being revised due to the Federal  government shutdown. These revised dates apply whether the proposal is being submitted via the NSF FastLane System or  Grants.gov. Due to compressed proposal deadlines resulting from the shutdown, proposers are advised that they may experience a  delay when contacting IT Help Central with technical support questions. Frequently asked questions regarding these date changes  are available on the Resumption of Operations page on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/postshutdown.jsp. 

The FY 2014 AFRI NIFA Fellowship RFA focuses on developing the next generation of research, education, and extension professionals in the food and agricultural sciences who will lead agriculture into the future by solving current and future challenges facing our society. The AFRI NIFA Fellowships Grant Program targets talented, highly-motivated doctoral candidates and post-doctoral trainees that demonstrate remarkable promise and the potential to become gifted education, extension, and research professionals in the United States. The NIFA Fellows are individuals who have the potential for remarkable accomplishments in agricultural science. The Program seeks to develop the technical and academic competence of doctoral candidates and the research independence and teaching competencies of postdoctoral students in the food, forestry and agricultural sciences, which are within NIFA's AFRI Challenge Areas, through well-developed and highly interactive mentoring and training activities. Project types supported by AFRI within this RFA include single-function Research, Education, and Extension Projects and multi-function Integrated Research, Education, and/or Extension Projects.

Funds may be used to pay expenses associated with providing technical assistance and/or training (TAT) to identify and evaluate solutions to water problems relating to source, storage, treatment, and distribution, and to waste disposal problems relating to collection, treatment, and disposal; assist applicants that have filed a preapplication with RUS in the preparation of water and/or waste disposal loan and/or grant applications; and to provide training that will improve the management, operation and maintenance of water and waste disposal facilities. Grant funds may not be used to recruit applications, duplicate current services such as those performed by a consultant in developing a project, fund political activities, pay for capital assets, purchase real estate or vehicles, improve and renovate office space or repair and maintain privately owned property, pay construction or O&M costs, and pay costs incurred prior to the effective date of grants made.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), hereby announce their interest in receiving applications for genomics- based research that will lead to the improved use of biomass and plant feedstocks for the production of fuels such as ethanol or renewable chemical feedstocks. Specifically, applications are sought for research on plants that will improve biomass and oil seed characteristics, yield, or sustainability. Research to overcome the biological barriers to the low-cost, high-quality, scalable and sustainable production of bioenergy feedstocks using the tools of genetics and genomics are encouraged.

The EaSM funding opportunity enables interagency cooperation on one of the most pressing problems of the millennium: climate change and how it is likely to affect our world. It allows the partner agencies -- National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- to combine resources to identify and fund the most meritorious and highest-impact projects that support their respective missions, while avoiding duplication of effort and fostering collaboration between agencies and the investigators they support.

The purpose of the BRAG program is to support the generation of new information that will assist Federal regulatory agencies in making science-based decisions about the effects of introducing into the environment genetically engineered organisms (GE), including plants, microorganisms (including fungi, bacteria, and viruses), arthropods, fish, birds, mammals and other animals excluding humans. Investigations of effects on both managed and natural environments are relevant. The BRAG program accomplishes its purpose by providing Federal regulatory agencies with scientific information relevant to regulatory issues. 

The AFRI Foundational Program is offered to support research grants in the six AFRI priority areas to continue building a foundation of knowledge critical for solving current and future societal challenges. The six priority areas are: Plant Health and Production and Plant Products; Animal Health and Production and Animal Products; Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health; Renewable Energy, Natural Resources, and Environment; Agriculture Systems and Technology; and Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities. Single-function Research Projects, multi-function Integrated Projects and Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants are expected to address one of the Program Area Priorities (see Foundational Program RFA for details).