New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) seeks nominations for its 2025 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award (NIA).

Donor Name: Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR)

State: All States

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes

Deadline: 02/19/2025

Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000

Grant Duration: 3 Years

Details:

The New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award provides early-career scientists the investment needed to propel them into successful research careers.

With this program, FFAR intends to support and promote the future generation of exceptionally talented and creative new faculty who are conducting critical and highly innovative research and are establishing research programs that will lead to expanded availability of food and facilitate the global practice of sustainable agriculture as the world’s population grows to more than nine billion people by the year 2050.

The New Innovator Award seeks to promote career advancement of highly creative and promising new scientists who intend to make a long-term career commitment to research in food and agriculture and bring innovative, ground-breaking research initiatives and thinking to bear on problems facing food and agriculture. Within the scope of the New Innovator Program, investigators will have the freedom to explore new avenues of inquiry that arise during their research. Therefore, FFAR is interested in the program of research to be explored and its impact as opposed to a list of very specific aims.

Priorities

Priority 1: Cultivating Thriving Production Systems: Production systems thrive when input providers and producers have the information and technologies (novel germplasm, digital tools, pest and disease solutions, etc.) to manage their enterprises efficiently and profitably—which includes selecting animals, crops and management practices that support site-specific environmental, social and business goals.
Priority 2: Sustaining Vibrant Agroecosystems: Tools, technologies and integrative models designed at scales needed for site-specific decision making allow producers to create, build and maintain healthy, productive agroecosystems that meet consumer expectations under changing climate conditions. Such solutions must provide flexibility to deal with future uncertainty, and clarify trends and trade-offs in environmental regeneration, productivity and resilience.
Priority 3: Bolstering Healthy Food Systems: In a healthy food system, food processors, distributors and retailers have the information and technologies needed to produce nutritious, environmentally sustainable and culturally appropriate food for consumers. Likewise, consumers require convenient access to safe, nutritious, desirable foods with a balance of macronutrients, micronutrients and protective phytochemicals.

Funding Information

Up to $150,000/year.

Grant Period

36 months.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible Institutions:
- U.S. Institutions of Higher Education
  - Public/State controlled institutions
  - Private institutions
- U.S. Nonprofit Research Institutions
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- In keeping with FFAR goals to reach a diverse and broad range of institutions and individuals who participate in its programs, the following types of higher education institutions are highly encouraged to apply for FFAR programs:
  - Hispanic-serving Institutions
  - 1890s Land Grant Institutions and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities
  - Tribal Colleges and Universities
  - Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
  - Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions
Eligible Individuals:
- Faculty members at eligible institutions with the creative ideas, skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research program as Principal Investigator are invited to work with their institution to develop an application for support.