Dear Colleagues,
USDA NIFA is soliciting topics commodity board entities (federal and state-level commodity boards) are willing to co-fund equally with NIFA. To be considered for inclusion in future Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program Requests for Applications (RFAs), topics must relate to the established priority areas of AFRI. Priority areas include plant health and production and plant products; animal health and production and animal products; food safety, nutrition, and health; bioenergy, natural resources, and environment; agriculture systems and technology; and agriculture economics and rural communities.
Commodity boards are those entities established under a commodity promotion law, as such term is defined under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, or a State commodity board or other equivalent State entity. A current list of approved entities is maintained at http://nifa.usda.gov/?commodity-boards/?.
Commodity boards may submit topics at any time; however, all topics received under this solicitation will be considered for fiscal year 2020 AFRI RFAs. NIFA will screen proposed research topics to ensure eligibility of the submitting commodity boards. NIFA will also consult with USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to determine that submissions and proposed financial contributions are consistent with commodity promotion laws and commodity boards' charters, as applicable. Examples of topics typically supported by AFRI can be found at http://nifa.usda.gov/?commodity- boards/.
This is an opportunity for UC ANR academics to work with commodity board entities to set NIFA funding priorities. Commodity boards are asked to submit topics by using the online topic submission form provided at: https://nifa.usda.govwebform/?commodity-board-topic-submission/?.
For more information, visit: https://nifa.usda.gov/commodity-boards
Topic submissions are due by Monday, August 5th at 2 p.m. PT.
Thank you.
Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)