The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is seeking applications for the Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Education Grants Program to promote and strengthen the ability of HSIs to carry out higher education programs that attract, retain, and graduate outstanding students capable of enhancing the nation’s food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) professional and scientific workforce.
Donor Name: National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/08/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 4 Years
Details:
The purpose of the HSI Education Grants Program is to encourage innovative teaching or education proposals with potential to impact and become models for other institutions that serve underrepresented students at the regional or national level.
The HSI Education Grants Program is aligned with the following:
- USDA Strategic Plan FY 2022-2026 goals
- Strategic Goal 2: Ensure America’s Agricultural System is Equitable, Resilient, and Prosperous
- Strategic Goal 4: Provide All Americans Safe, Nutritious Food
- USDA Science and Research Strategy, 2023-2026 priorities:
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 systems and sciences in the United States.
- Enhance the quality of postsecondary instruction within the above disciplines.
- Provide opportunities and access to food and agricultural 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 Deadlines
- Regular: February 6, 2024
- Collaboration: February 7, 2024
- Conference: February 8, 2024
Project Types
- Education/Teaching Projects
- Community Development Projects
Grant Types
There are five grant types for the HSIs Education Grants Program: Regular, Bridge, Collaboration, Conference, and Conference DATA Grants.
- 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. Regular Grant applicants may allocate up to $40,000 to provide financial assistance to one underrepresented student from the project – this financial assistance must be allocated towards a student pursuing graduate school.
- 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 considered for a Bridge Grant, applicant institutions must have not previously received USDA NIFA HSI Education Grants Program funds. Bridge applications will be reviewed and ranked with the rest of the regular grant applications and will be 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 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. To ensure the cost-effectiveness of funded projects, the institutions will work together to recruit and graduate a minimum of fifteen undergraduate and ten graduate students from underrepresented groups in an Associate, Baccalaureate, MS, or PhD degree program. The twenty-five students must be recruited during the duration of the grant. Collaboration Grants will be funded up to $1,200,000 total and must be for a project period of four years.
- Conference Grants support scientific meetings that bring together educators to identify research, education/teaching, and/or extension 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. Conference Grants are not renewable. Indirect costs are not permitted on Conference Grant awards.
- Conference DATA Grant, In FY 2024 and FY 2025, one of the Conference Grants will be awarded to an institution each fiscal year to bring together HSIs that have previously received an HSI Education Grant for an Assessment and Evaluation Conference to convene HSI awardees from across the country and Puerto Rico (minimum 25 institutions). The budget for this specific Conference DATA Grant is $100,000. Applications are expected to propose a conference that will emphasize research and practice as related to educational assessment and evaluation of projects funded through the NIFA HSI Education Grants program.
Funding Information
This RFA is being released prior to the passage of a full appropriations act for 2024 and 2025. Enactment of a continuing resolution, appropriations act, or other authorizing legislation may affect the availability or level of funding for this program. The amount available for the HSI Education Grants Program in 2024 and 2025 is approximately $15,332,800 per fiscal year. USDA is not committed to fund any particular application or to make a specific number of awards
- Regular – $400,000
- Regular Bridge – $200,000
- Collaboration – $1,200,000
- Conference – $50,000
- Conference DATA – $100,000
Grant Duration
- 48 Months – Regular and Collaboration
- 36 Months – Conference
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 as defined in 20 U.S.C. 1101a(a)(2) and has a minimum of 25 percent undergraduate full-time Hispanic enrollment (20 U.S.C. 1101a(a)(5)). 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.
