The Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program aims to promote and strengthen the ability of Hispanic Serving Institutions to carry out education, applied research, and related community development programs.
Donor Name: National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/21/2025
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 4 Years
Details:
This program encourages innovative teaching, education, or related community development proposals with potential to impact and become models for other institutions that serve underrepresented students at the regional or national level.
Priority Need Areas
Projects supported by this program must include/address one or more of the following priority need areas:
- Attract and support undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups to prepare them for careers related to the food, agricultural natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) in the United States.
- Enhance the quality of postsecondary instruction within the above disciplines.
- Provide opportunities and access to FANH careers in the public, non-profit and private sectors.
- Align the efforts of HSIs and other non-profit organizations to support academic development and career attainment of underrepresented groups.
Grant Types
There are five grant types for the HSIs Education Grants Program:
- Regular Grant. Regular Grants support targeted, original, scientific Education/Teaching Projects and Community Development Projects. Applicants are eligible HSI institutions (two or four-year institutions, independent branch campuses, or branch institutions of a state system) with project activities to be undertaken principally on behalf of and for the benefit of the lead HSI. Applicants may partner with other HSIs or non-HSIs without the requirement of sharing grant funds with other project partners. Grants will be funded up to $400,000 total and must be for a period of four years. In addition to funds allocated towards student support and scholarships, Regular Grant applicants may allocate an additional sum of up to $40,000 to provide financial assistance to one underrepresented student participating in the funded project – this financial assistance must be allocated towards a student pursuing graduate school.
- Bridge Grant. Bridge Grants, a subset of Regular Grants, may be available to enhance institutional capacity with the goal of strengthening the capacity of the applicant’s education programs and the competitiveness of future grant applications. To be eligible for a Bridge Grant, applicant institutions must have not previously received USDA NIFA HSI Education Grants Program funds. Please note – applicants who receive a Bridge Grant will have applied for a Regular Grant. Bridge Grant recipients are identified by the peer-review panel from the pool of Regular Grants and are selected for funding by the review team based on their potential for enhancing agricultural education and the capacity of the applicant institution to be successful in future grant competitions. Awards made under this option will be funded up to $200,000 for a project period of four years.
- Collaboration Grant. Collaboration Grants for this program must be submitted by a group of two or more HSIs, forming a linkage arrangement for the purpose of carrying out common objective(s) on the group’s behalf. The arrangement must be formed to promote and strengthen institutional abilities to carry out higher education programs related to FANH. Collaboration Grants must support Education/Teaching Projects. Collaboration Grants for Community Development Projects will not be accepted. Collaboration Grants are designed to help institutions develop competitive projects and to attract new students into careers in high-priority areas of national need. The proposed project is expected to recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate a minimum of 25 students overall during the four-year life of the grant and make sure at least 10 of these students are pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees. Undergraduate students are encouraged to be recruited on year-one. Throughout the project, students must be closely tracked to monitor their academic progress from recruitment and retention to graduation. Additionally, the project should provide ongoing support to assist these students in securing professional opportunities with the USDA and other entities such as internships and shadowing experiences, ensuring that they are well-prepared to transition into careers in the field by the end of the grant period. The lead applicant can be a two-year or four-year institution, however, since 10 of the students are expected to be graduate students, one of the collaborators must offer graduate degrees. Collaboration Grants will be funded up to $1,200,000 total and must be for a project period of four years. Applicants are encouraged to allocate at least $300,000 of the total grant to support graduate student expenses. This funding should be directed towards covering essential costs, including tuition and fees, stipends for living expenses, and health insurance premiums. Additionally, funds may be used to support travel expenses for conferences and workshops, providing students with opportunities to present their research and engage with the academic community. By prioritizing these areas, the grant will help ensure that graduate students have the financial support they need to focus on their studies and research endeavors. All partners must have a significant role in the collaboration and each institution’s budget needs to be appropriate to support its activities.
- Conference Grant. Conference Grants support scientific meetings that bring together educators to identify education, teaching, and/or related community development needs, update information, or advance an area of education/teaching. Individual Conference Grants must not exceed $50,000 total for a project period of up to three years. Indirect costs are not permitted on Conference Grant awards.
- Conference DATA Grant. In FY 2025, one of the Conference Grants will be awarded to an institution for an Assessment and Evaluation Conference to convene HSI awardees from across the country and Puerto Rico (invitees will be determined in collaboration with NIFA after the grant has been awarded, with the goal of a minimum of 25 institutions represented. The maximum budget for this specific Conference DATA Grant is $175,000.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $15,329,953
- Award Ceiling: $1,200,000
- Award Floor: $50,000.
Grant Period
4 years.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants for the HSI Education Grants Program must meet all the requirements discussed in this RFA. Applications may only be submitted by Hispanic-Serving Institutions. For the purpose of the HSI Education Grants Program, an HSI is an institution of higher education that is an eligible institution and has a minimum of 25 percent undergraduate full-time Hispanic enrollment. Failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the application deadline may result in the application being excluded from consideration and, even though an application may be reviewed, will preclude NIFA from making an award.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
