Program Synopsis: Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grants Program
The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) at the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) is charged with funding research, education, and extension grants and integrated research, extension, and education grants that address key problems of National, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of agriculture, including farm efficiency and profitability, ranching, renewable energy, forestry (both urban and agroforestry), aquaculture, rural communities and entrepreneurship, human nutrition, food safety, biotechnology, and conventional breeding. Providing this support requires that AFRI advances fundamental sciences in support of agriculture and coordinates opportunities to build on these discoveries. This will necessitate efforts in education and extension that deliver science-based knowledge to people, allowing them to make informed practical decisions.
Section 7406 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub. L. 110-246) (i.e., the 2008 Farm Bill) amends subsection (b) of the Competitive, Special, and Facilities Research Grant Act (7 U.S.C. 450i(b)) to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a new competitive grant program to provide funding for fundamental and applied research, extension, and education to address food and agricultural sciences. AFRI supersedes the National Research Initiative. AFRI Grants shall be awarded to address priorities in United States agriculture in the following areas:
A) Plant health and production and plant products;
B) Animal health and production and animal products;
C) Food safety, nutrition, and health;
D) Renewable energy, natural resources, and environment;
E) Agriculture systems and technology; and
F) Agriculture economics and rural communities.
To the maximum extent practicable, CSREES, in coordination with the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics (REE), will make grants for high priority research, education, and extension, taking into consideration, when available, the determinations made by the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board. The authority to carry out this program has been delegated to CSREES through the Undersecretary for REE.
The program authorizes grants for FY 2009-12, of which the Secretary may retain no more than 4 percent for administrative costs. Funds will be available for obligation for a two-year period beginning in the fiscal year for which funds are first made available. Grants will be awarded on the basis of merit, quality, and relevance and may have terms of up to 10 years.
Subject to the availability of appropriations to carry out the AFRI program, the Secretary may award grants to State agricultural experiment stations; colleges and universities; university research foundations; other research institutions and organizations; Federal agencies; national laboratories; private organizations or corporations; individuals; or any group consisting of two or more of the aforementioned entities. Please see the details in the Request for Applications. The FY 2009 program announcement in a first step in using the programmatic flexibility provided to AFRI by the authorizing legislation. Included are 22 program descriptions that support research only applications. There are also 10 that programs that solicit integrated applications that support at a minimum, a combination of any two components of the science knowledge system: research, education and extension. Four programs support education only applications. They are: Bioactive Food Components for Optimal Health, Soil Processes, Microbial Genomics and Biobased Products and Bioenergy Research. Lastly, there are two programs that support extension/outreach only applications. They are: Human Nutrition and Obesity and Plant Biosecurity.
Please note that there are substantial opportunities for conventional plant and animal breeding research and integrated projects within AFRI. For plant breeding, see the Plant Biology: Environmental Stress program, the Plant Genome, Genetics, and Breeding program, and the Plant Breeding and Education program. For animal breeding, see the Animal Genome, Genetics, and Breeding program.
CSREES may also solicit applications for AFRI funds through other announcements, including supplemental FY 2009 AFRI RFAs or in conjunction with multi-agency programs.
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