The Higher Education Challenge Grants Program is designed to strengthen institutional capacities, including curriculum, faculty, scientific instrumentation, instruction delivery systems, and student recruitment and retention, to respond to identified state, regional, national, or international educational needs in the food and agricultural sciences, or in rural economic, community, and business development.
Donor Name: National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/11/2025
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 4 Years
Details:
Projects supported by the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program will:
- address a state, regional, national, or international educational need;
- involve a creative or non-traditional approach toward addressing that need that can serve as a model to others;
- encourage and facilitate better working relationships in the university science and education community, as well as between universities and the private sector, to enhance program quality and supplement available resources; and
- result in benefits that will likely transcend the project duration and USDA support.
The HEC program is aligned with the following USDA Science and Research Strategy, 2023 2026 priorities:
- Priority 1: Accelerating Innovative Technologies & Practices
- Priority 2: Driving Climate-Smart Solutions
- Priority 3: Bolstering Nutrition Security & Health
- Priority 4: Cultivating Resilient Ecosystems
- Priority 5: Translating Research into Action.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $5,061,425
- Planning Activity – $30,000;
- Standard – $150,000;
- Collaborative 1 (CG1) – $300,000;
- Collaborative 2 (CG2) – $750,000.
Grant Period
- Planning Activity – Up to 36 months;
- Standard – 36 to 48 months;
- Collaborative 1 (CG1) – 36 to 48 months;
- Collaborative 2 (CG2) – 36 to 48 months.
Eligibility Criteria
Applications may be submitted by:
- U.S. public or private nonprofit colleges and universities offering a baccalaureate or first professional degree in at least one discipline or area of the food and agricultural sciences;
- Land-grant colleges and universities, (including Land-grant institutions in the Insular Areas);
- colleges and universities having significant minority enrollments and a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences; and
- other colleges and universities having a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.