The National Institute of Food and Agriculture requests applications for the Smith-Lever Special Needs Competitive Grants Program (SLSNCGP) RFA for fiscal year (FY) 2025 to enable the Cooperative Extension System (CES) to assist in preparing for, providing an educational response to, recovering from, and mitigating disasters and disaster threats.
Donor Name: National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/13/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
The purpose of the SLSNCGP is to support innovative, education-based approaches to address disaster preparedness and specific responses related to disasters or disaster threats caused by natural, human-made, or technological hazards, or by other factors that contribute to the exposure or vulnerability of a community. The goals and objectives of SLSNCGP include supporting quality of life in communities across the U.S. by addressing disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation in food and agricultural systems. The SLSNCGP also seeks to continue to provide information and resources to USDA target audiences, stakeholders, and collaborators to improve decision-making before, during, and after disasters.
Grant funds will support innovative extension education initiatives that address risks, hazards, and threats that may lead to disasters. The SLSNCGP enables the Cooperative Extension System (CES) to assist in preparing for, providing an educational response to, recovering from, and mitigating disasters and disaster threats. Disaster-related projects that were funded in previous years include uncertainties caused by losses of economic infrastructure, extreme weather or other disasters, security breaches, human disease, volunteerism, local coordination, or high consequence animal diseases and plant pests. The SLSNCGP promotes awareness and capacity building of urban and rural communities’ response to disasters by strengthening individual, family, farm, and small business disaster preparedness, particularly for those who have been historically underserved, through education and collaborations with other agencies or volunteer organizations.
Topical Areas
Topical Areas cover the subject areas on which the Cooperative Extension System develops and delivers educational resources and programs to target audiences and stakeholders through science-based education. SLSNCGP projects must address at least one of these Topical Areas:
- Agriculture: Includes but is not limited to row crop and forage health and production; livestock health and production; aquaculture; fruit and vegetable production; food loss and waste; farm and agribusiness management; economics; urban agriculture; farm safety; and agricultural biosecurity.
- Natural Resources: Includes but is not limited to water; forestry; wood sciences; range; waste management; energy, wildlife; recreation; and environmental education.
- Community and Economic Development: Includes but is not limited to small business; workforce development; community planning; placemaking; revitalization; tourism; visioning and strategic planning; leadership development; housing; homeowner education; civic engagement; volunteerism; broadband; and rural life.
- Family and Consumer Sciences: Includes but is not limited to nutrition; food safety; food loss and waste; nutrition security; health management and wellness; health equity; well-being; mental health; personal and family finance; child development; early childhood education; individual and family relationships; textiles; and hospitality.
- 4-H and Youth Development: Includes but is not limited to youth development; career exploration; civic engagement; STEM education; and volunteerism.
Funding Information
- Standard Grant: Supports targeted original scientific Research, Education/Teaching, Extension, or Integrated Projects. An eligible individual institution, independent branch campus, or branch institution of a State system may submit a grant application for project activities to be undertaken principally on behalf of its own students or faculty, and to be managed primarily by its own personnel. The applicant executes the project without the requirement of sharing grant funds with other project partners.
- Standard awards of Federal funds for this grant will not exceed $115,000. The amount requested will vary depending on the geographic scope of the project and the urgency of the need(s) being addressed.
- Project periods for standard grants range from 12 to 36 months.
- Planning Grant: Supports early-stage investment in a new, startup project that is aligned with the purpose and priorities of the grant program. Planning grants provide projects with opportunities to convene potential and planned partners, explore ideas and implementation strategies, and design projects that can be scaled.
- Planning awards of Federal funds for this grant will not exceed $30,000 and are not renewable. The budget for the planning grant may include an appropriate amount for transportation and subsistence costs for participants and other related costs.
- Project periods for planning grants are 12 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications may only be submitted by 1862 Land-grant Institutions in the 50 states and the U.S. territories, American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Award recipients may subcontract to organizations not eligible to apply, provided such organizations are necessary for the conduct of the project. The 1862 Land-grant Institutions may partner with each other as well as with other Land-grant Institutions (e.g., 1890s and 1994s), non- land-grant institutions, and non-governmental organizations within their state or their region on joint proposals.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
