Agriculture & Food Research Initiative (AFRI)

Providing grants that address key problems of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of agriculture

Program Basics
The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) is the core competitive grants program offered by the USDA. The purpose of AFRI is to fund 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. AFRI also supports coordination opportunities to build on the discoveries from the advancement of fundamental sciences in support of agriculture. Therefore, efforts in education and extension that deliver science-based knowledge to people, allowing them to make informed practical decisions are also a priority.

AFRI programs offers a wide array of award types for FY 2009, including: non-integrated grants (Research only projects, Education only projects, and Extension only projects); integrated grants that include two or more of the following in one project: research, education, and extension; conference grants; and Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) grants including postdoctoral grants, new investigator grants, and strengthening grants (standard strengthening grants, sabbatical grants, equipment grants, and seed grants).

Specific programs within AFRI are offered 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.

Please see the AFRI Request for Application (RFA) on the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension website at www.csrees.usda.gov for individual program descriptions.

Project Examples
AFRI is a new competitive grant program under Section 7406 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (FCEA) (Pub. L. 110-246) (i.e., the 2008 Farm Bill).

Application and Financial Information
Each year the AFRI Request for Application (RFA) is published on the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) website at www.nifa.usda.gov/. Proposal guidelines and submission deadlines are outlined in the RFA. All applications must be submitted via Grants.gov.

Congress passed funding for AFRI in FY10 at $262 million. However, there is no commitment by USDA to fund any particular application or to make a specific number of awards. For FY09, USDA committed that no less than 30 percent of appropriated funds would be made available to fund programs that integrate research, education and extension. Of the AFRI funds allocated to research activities, 60 percent were to be directed toward grants for fundamental (or basic) research and 40 percent toward applied research. Of the AFRI funds allocated to fundamental research, not less than 30 percent of AFRI grants were to be directed toward research by multidisciplinary teams. It was anticipated that no less than 10 percent of the funds would be made available for Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Awards and no more than two percent of funds for fundamental research be made available for Equipment Grants. AFRI funds may be used to support applications submitted to supplementary AFRI RFAs and/or solicitations for multi-agency programs in which AFRI is participating.

AFRI programs that may be of particular interest to the audience of the Building Better Rural Places guide include, but are not limited to: Agribusiness Markets and Trade, Agricultural Prosperity for Small and Medium-sized Farms, Rural Development, and Sustainable Agroecosystems Science and Long-Term Agroecosystem.

Eligibility, Uses, and Restrictions
The eligibility for AFRI programs is linked to the program of interest. Non-integrated grants are eligible to state agricultural experiment stations, colleges, universities, university research foundations, other research institutions and organizations, federal agencies, national laboratories, private organizations or corporations, and individuals who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents. Integrated programs' eligibility are restricted to colleges and universities, 1994 Land-Grant Institutions, Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and universities, and research foundations maintained by a college or university. Please see the RFA for the eligibility for FASE grants.

For information about uses and restrictions also see the RFA.

Website
www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/afri/afri.html

Contact
Dr. Mark Poth, Research Director
Competitive Programs
USDA-CSREES
Phone: (202) 401-5244
mpoth@csrees.usda.gov

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