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Rick Borchelt, Director of Communications, Research, Education, and Economics, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, writes with news of funding opportunities open to informal science institutions. Rick spoke last month at the ISE Summit. Deadlines are in early May for letters of intent. Details are here. Background from Rick follows:

I wanted to make you aware of ISE research opportunities related to the approximately $262 million in funds recently announced through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) to address five key societal challenges.

Informal science education has always been a critical component of AFRI programs, and the historical underpinnings of much ISE theory and understanding date to seminal work in USDA’s extension and education systems. We welcome ISE proposals from the broader community in conjunction with these awards.

Within AFRI, informal science education can be a part of projects submitted to programs offering “integrated” grants, education grants, and extension grants. Integrated projects are those that incorporate two or more of the functions of the agricultural knowledge system (i.e., research, education, and/or extension) to address a problem or issue. Education grants are to support formal classroom instruction, laboratory instruction, and practicum experience in the food and agricultural sciences and other related matters such as faculty development, student recruitment and services, curriculum development, instructional materials and equipment, and innovative teaching methodologies. Please note that the focus of an education grant is on formal educational activities, but the innovative approaches used by practitioners of ISE may have relevance in these programs as well. Extension projects deliver science-based knowledge and informal education programs to the public. These may include certification programs, in-service training, client recruitment and services, curriculum development, instructional materials and equipment, and innovative instructional methodologies appropriate to informal educational programs. Please note that in the context of AFRI, extension refers to any kind of effective outreach or informal science education, not just the programming offered by the Cooperative Extension Service. We encourage you to reach out to your colleagues and collaborators at your universities and institutions in agriculture, biology, agronomy, and related fields to team up for these awards.

AFRI is NIFA’s flagship competitive grant program and was established under section 7406 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, otherwise known as the 2008 Farm Bill. AFRI supports work in six priority areas: 1) plant health and production and plant products; 2) animal health and production and animal products; 3) food safety, nutrition and health; 4) renewable energy, natural resources and environment; 5) agriculture systems and technology; and 6) agriculture economics and rural communities.

Six Requests for Applications (RFAs) under this funding announcement address these AFRI priorities in five societal challenge areas where research, education, and extension can achieve significant and measurable outcomes. The five challenge area RFAs are:

• Childhood Obesity Prevention
• Climate Change
• Food Safety
• Global Food Security
• Sustainable Bioenergy

Opportunities for submission of integrated projects may be found in each of the five challenge area RFAs. Education grants are offered in the Childhood Obesity Prevention, Climate Change, Food Safety and Sustainable Bioenergy RFAs. Extension grants are offered in the Childhood Obesity Prevention, Climate Change, and Global Food Security RFAs.

A separate NIFA Fellowships Grant Program RFA will fund opportunities for pre- and postdoctoral fellowship grants.

Many of the awards designated as targeting societal challenge will be larger in size and longer in duration than awards in previous years – with funding up to $45 million over a five-year award period. Some grants will be eligible for renewal upon achieving specific goals. NIFA expects that such grants will establish collaborations among multiple institutions and organizations and will integrate basic and applied research with deliberate education or extension programs.

All RFAs are available on NIFA’s Web site and on Grants.gov. NIFA will post a series of webinars focused on the individual RFAs to provide an overview of the program areas. Visit www.nifa.usda.gov/afri for more information.

Applicants and other parties interested in the AFRI funding opportunity are encouraged to contact NIFA at (202) 401-5022 or AFRI@nifa.usda.gov. Specific program information and deadlines are available at www.nifa.usda.gov/afri.