Grants for Agricultural Research, Special Research Grants

To carry out research, to facilitate or expand promising breakthroughs in areas of the food and agricultural sciences of importance to the nation and to facilitate or expand on-going State-Federal food and agricultural research programs.

Programs Listed under 10.200 are:

1. Global Change Ultraviolet Radiation Monitoring and Research Program (GC/UV-B)
2. Special Research Grants Program Potato Breeding Research

Special Research Grants: State agricultural experiment stations, all colleges and universities, other research institutions and organizations, Federal agencies, private organizations or corporations and individuals having a demonstrable capacity to conduct research activities to facilitate or expand promising breakthroughs in areas of the food and agricultural sciences of importance to the United States.

Applications are subjected to a system of peer and merit review in accordance with section 103 of the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7613) by a panel of qualified scientists and other appropriate persons who are specialists in the field covered by the proposal. Within the limit of funds available for such purpose, the NIFA Authorized Departmental Officer (ADO) shall make grants to those responsible, eligible applicants whose applications are judged most meritorious under the procedures set forth in the NOFO.
Reviewers will be selected based upon training and experience in relevant scientific, extension, or education fields, taking into account the following factors: (a) The level of relevant formal scientific, technical education, or extension experience of the individual, as well as the extent to which an individual is engaged in relevant research, education, or extension activities; (b) the need to include as reviewers experts from various areas of specialization within relevant scientific, education, or extension fields; (c) the need to include as reviewers other experts (e.g., producers, range or forest managers/operators, and consumers) who can assess relevance of the applications to targeted audiences and to program needs; (d) the need to include as reviewers experts from a variety of organizational types (e.g., colleges, universities, industry, state and Federal agencies, private profit and non-profit organizations) and geographic locations; (e) the need to maintain a balanced composition of reviewers with regard to minority and female representation and an equitable age distribution; and (f) the need to include reviewers who can judge the effective usefulness to producers and the general public of each application.

Evaluation Criteria will be delineated in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).

2 CFR 200 – Subpart C and Appendix I and 2 CFR part 400 apply to this Program.

Dates for specific deadlines are announced in the NOFO each fiscal year. Range of Approval/Disapproval Time:
From 30 to 180 days.

Contact the National Program Leader (NPL)Headquarters Office regarding dates for specific deadlines, start and end dates, and range of approval/disapproval time.

Information is also available via our website and may be obtained via the Grants.gov website. NIFA’s respective links regarding general information are provided below:
http://nifa.usda.gov/
http://www.grants.gov.

SPECIAL NOTE:

Please refer to the NOFO for further specific and pertinent details. The most current NOFOs are available as follows:

Global Change Ultraviolet Radiation Monitoring and Research Program (GC/UV-B):
https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/global-change-ultraviolet-radiation-monitoring-and-research-program

Special Research Grants Program Potato Breeding Research:
https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/potato-breeding-research

NOFOs are generally released annually. Hence, the NOFOs provide the most current and accurate information available. Any specific instructions in the Competitive NOFOs supersede the general information provided in the CFDA database.