Veterinary Services Grant Program

The purpose of the Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP) is to relieve veterinarian shortage situations and support veterinary services. The Secretary shall carry out a program to make competitive grants to qualified entities that carry out programs or activities for the purpose of developing, implementing, and sustaining veterinary services through education, training, recruitment, placement, and retention of veterinarians and veterinary students. Grants will also be made to establish or expand veterinary practices.

A qualified entity shall be eligible to receive a grant described in paragraph (1) if the entity carries out programs or activities that the Secretary determines will:

(A) Substantially relieve veterinarian shortage situations;

(B) Support or facilitate private veterinary practices engaged in public health activities; or (C) support or facilitate the practices of veterinarians who are providing or have completed providing services under an agreement entered into with the Secretary under section 1415A(a)(2).

The term ‘qualified entity’ means:

(A) A for-profit or nonprofit entity located in the United States that, or an individual who, operates a veterinary clinic providing veterinary services:

(i) In a rural area, as defined in section 343(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1991(a)); and

(ii) In a veterinarian shortage situation;

(B) A State, national, allied, or regional veterinary organization or specialty board recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association;

(C) A college or school of veterinary medicine accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association;

(D) A university research foundation or veterinary medical foundation;

(E) A department of veterinary science or department of comparative medicine accredited by the Department of Education;

(F) A State agricultural experiment station; or

(G) A State, local, or tribal government agency.

The term ‘veterinarian shortage situation’ means a veterinarian shortage situation as determined by the Secretary under section 1415A

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 RFA. 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 Competitive Request for Applications (RFA). 2 CFR 200 – Subpart C and Appendix I and 2 CFR part 400 apply to this Program. SPECIAL NOTE: Please refer to the Competitive Request for Applications (RFAs) for further specific and pertinent details. The most current RFAs are available via: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/grants/funding-opportunities/veterinary-services-grant-program-vsgp RFAs are generally released annually. Hence, the RFAs provide the most current and accurate information available. Any specific instructions in the Competitive RFAs supersede the general information provided in the CFDA database.

From 30 to 180 days. Contact the Program Staff regarding dates for specific deadlines, start and end dates, and range of approval/disapproval time.