National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) requests applications for the Resident Instruction Grants Program for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (RIIA) and the Agriculture and Food Sciences Facilities and Equipment (AGFEI) for land-grant colleges and universities in the Insular Areas for fiscal year 2023 to strengthen the capacity to carry out resident instruction, curriculum, and teaching programs in the food and agricultural sciences as well as to upgrade agriculture and food science facilities, and equipment necessary to conduct tropical and subtropical agricultural research.
Donor Name: National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
U.S. Territories: American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/15/2023
Size of the Grant: $600,000
Grant Duration: 36 to 48 months
Details:
Purpose and Priorities
The purpose of these programs is to promote and strengthen the ability of eligible institutions in the Insular Areas to carry out education within the food and agricultural sciences.
RIIA projects:
- Strengthen institutional educational capacities, including libraries, curriculum, faculty, scientific instrumentation, instruction delivery systems, and student recruitment and retention, to respond to identified State, regional, national, or international education needs in the food and agricultural sciences.
- Attract and support undergraduate and graduate students to educate them in identified areas of national need in the food and agricultural sciences.
- Facilitate cooperative initiatives between two or more insular area eligible institutions, or between those institutions and units of State Government or organizations in the private sector, to maximize the development and use of resources such as faculty, facilities, and equipment to improve food and agricultural sciences teaching programs.
- Conduct undergraduate scholarship programs to assist in meeting national needs for training food and agricultural scientists.
AGFEI Projects
- Support activities to acquire, alter or renovate facilities or relevant equipment necessary for conducting agricultural research.
- Support tropical and subtropical agricultural research, including pest and disease research.
Project and Grant Types
The following describes the types of projects or grants that are eligible for funding:
- The RIIA program will only accept one project type: Education/Teaching
- Education or Teaching Projects need areas
- Curricula Design, Materials Development, and Library Resources
- Faculty Preparation and Enhancement for Teaching
- Instruction Delivery Systems
- Scientific Instrumentation for Teaching and Research
- Student Experiential Learning
- Student Recruitment, Retention, and Educational Equity
Grant Types
- Standard Grant
- This is an award instrument by which NIFA agrees to support a specified level of effort for a predetermined project period without the announced intention of providing additional support at a future date.
- The standard project period may range from 36 to 48 months.
- Planning Activity
- Planning Activity Grants support scientific meetings that bring together educators to identify education/teaching needs, update information, or advance an area of education/teaching. Support for a limited number of meetings covering subject matter encompassed by this solicitation will be considered for partial or, if modest, total support. Individual planning activity grants must not exceed $30,000 for up to 36 months and are not renewable. Indirect costs are not permitted on Planning Activity grant awards.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $1,200,000
- Award Ceiling: $600,000
- Award Floor: $30,000
Eligibility Requirements
Individual Institutions
For the purposes of the RIIA program, an eligible institution is an institution of higher education, as defined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1995 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)); is located at an Insular Area; and has a demonstrable capacity to carry out teaching and extension programs in the food and agricultural sciences. All public or non-profit 2-year and 4-year accredited institutions of higher education that offer certificate/degree programs in the food and agricultural sciences are eligible. For the purposes of the AGFEI program, only individual land-grant colleges and universities, and other institutions that have secured land-grant status through Federal legislation, and which are located at Insular Areas are eligible for awards under this RFA as individual applicants. The eight Insular Areas are:
- American Samoa
- The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
- The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
- The Federated States of Micronesia
- Guam
- The Republic of the Marshall Islands
- The Republic of Palau
- The United States Virgin Islands
Branch Institutions of a Territory University System
- For the purposes of the RIIA and AGFEI programs, the individual branches of a territory university system that are separately accredited as degree-granting institutions are treated as separate, individual institutions eligible to apply for and receive awards, provided they otherwise satisfy the definition of “eligible institution” as specified above
Independent Branch Campuses
Independent branch campuses of individual institutions may apply for and receive grant awards under this program, provided that they otherwise satisfy the definition of “eligible institution” as specified above.
Certification of Eligibility
At the time of application, each primary applicant will be required to demonstrate or certify that it is an eligible institution as defined by this RFA. A non-Land Grant institution must submit a letter signed by the institution’s Authorized Representative (AR) certifying that it meets the requirements of an “eligible institution” as defined above. The AR must also certify the institution, or parent institution in the case of an independent branch campus.
- Admits as regular students only persons having a certificate of graduation from a school providing secondary education, or the recognized equivalent of such a certificate.
- Is legally authorized by the Territory in which it is located to provide a program of education beyond secondary education.
- Provides an educational program for which the institution awards a bachelor’s degree or provides not less than a 2-year program that is acceptable for full credit toward such a degree.
- Is a public or other nonprofit institution; and is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association, or if not so accredited, is an institution that has been granted pre-accreditation status by such an agency or association that has been recognized by the Secretary for the granting of preaccreditation status, and the Secretary has determined that there is satisfactory assurance that the institution will meet the accreditation standards of such an agency or association within a reasonable time.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
