The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is seeking applications for its Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative Research Grants.
Donor Name: National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/29/2026
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 5 Years
Details:
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is committed to advancing these principles and encourages applicants to actively engage farmers, ranchers, and foresters when applying for funding opportunities to ensure relevancy and adherence to them. NIFA also encourages agricultural leaders to engage in the peer review panel process to ensure American producers are better served through research, education, and extension activities.
Projects submitted under this NOFO should align with USDA Secretary’s Memorandum 1078-020 Directive on Departmental Research and Development Priorities:
- Increasing Profitability of Farmers and Ranchers
- Expanding Markets and Creating New Uses of U.S. Agricultural Products
- Protecting the Integrity of American Agriculture from Invasive Species
- Promoting Soil Health to Regenerate Long-Term Productivity of Land
- Improving Human Health through Precision Nutrition and Food Quality
The Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative, under assistance listing number 10.332, will fund research that will:
- Study agriculturally significant crops and animals in production environments to achieve sustainable and secure agricultural production.
- Ensure that current gaps in existing knowledge of agricultural crop and animal genetics and phenomics are filled.
- Identify and develop a functional understanding of relevant genes from animals and agronomically relevant genes from crops that are of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States.
- Ensure future genetic improvement of crops and animals of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States.
- Study the relevance of diverse germplasm as a source of unique genes that may be of importance in the future.
- Enhance genetics to reduce the economic impact of pathogens on crops and animals of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States.
- Disseminate findings to relevant audiences.
Priorities
The priorities of this program are to:
- Promote effective collaborations across academic disciplines by integrating perspectives and expertise through team science and communication.
- Develop models combining fields such as genetics, genomics, plant physiology, animal physiology, meat science, animal nutrition, veterinary science, agronomy, abiotic and biotic factors, and crop modeling with computation and informatics, statistics, and engineering to focus on needs such as yield, feed conversion efficiency, production efficiency, and nutritional quality with incorporation of genetics.
- Employ common data architectures across crop and animal systems consistent with FAIR data principles.
- Engineer novel hardware, computing, and information systems to improve and democratize the acquisition, interpretation, and analysis of large datasets of high periodicity imagery, spectra, phenotypes, genotypes, and accompanying metadata.
- Study the potential relevance of germplasm as a source of unique genes that may be of importance in the future genetic improvement of crops and animals of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States.
- Improve the quality and availability of crop and animal genetic resources for use in the agricultural sector.
- All applications are encouraged to address at least two of the five goals listed below through a research-focused approach:
- Develop new or augment existing benchmark datasets comprised of genetic, phenotypic, abiotic and biotic factors, and physiological data on crops or livestock, poultry, and aquaculture of importance to U.S. agriculture for the purpose of testing, training, and comparing predictive analytic tools by the data science community with potential wide application in agricultural fields.
- Combine plant and/or animal genomic information with phenotypic and environmental data through an interdisciplinary framework, leading to a novel understanding of plant and/or animal processes that affect growth, productivity, and the ability to predict performance, which will result in the deployment of superior varieties or individuals to producers and improved management recommendations for farmers and ranchers.
- Development of high-throughput methods for on-farm recording of traits for improving selection criteria in plants and/or animals. This may include artificial intelligence, machine learning, and phenomics methodologies.
- Improve national agricultural data infrastructure to facilitate storage and programmatic access to very large datasets and to allow for improved data description, harmonization, and system interoperability.
- Incorporate workforce development through support and training at the undergraduate, graduate, or postgraduate level with a sound mentorship plan that incorporates creative, meaningful contributions by project participants to research design, interpretation, and scientific inquiry. Workforce development efforts that include a partnership with private for-profit entities are welcome.
Funding Information
- Minimum Award Amount: $300,000
- Maximum Award Amount: $900,000
Grant Period
36-60 Months
Eligibility Criteria
- In accordance with the Secretary may make grants under this subsection to:
- State agricultural experiment stations;
- Colleges and universities;
- University research foundations;
- Other research institutions and organizations;
- Federal agencies;
- National laboratories;
- Private organizations, foundations, or corporations;
- Individuals; or
- Any group consisting of two or more of the entities described in (1) through (8).
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
