 Acting Deputy
Director for NIFA’s Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition
Dr. Muquarrab Qureshi will serve as the Acting Deputy
Director for NIFA’s Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition in an interim
capacity. Dr. Qureshi will concurrently continue to serve as
the Deputy Director of the Institute of Youth, Family, and Community.
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 Acting Directors
for NIFA’s PARS Staff
Toija Riggins and Kristen Boyd have been selected to
serve as the Acting Director for NIFA’s Planning, Accountability, and Reporting
Staff (PARS) in consecutive temporary assignments in order to provide
leadership and oversight until the vacancy can be filled on a permanent basis.
Toija Riggins joined NIFA in October 2014, and she currently
serves as the national program leader for Rural Sociology in the Institute of
Youth, Family, and Community. Toija’s detail in PARS began June 24 and continues through Oct. 13.
Kristen Boyd joined NIFA in October 2016, and she currently
serves as an IT specialist focusing on Enterprise Architecture in the Office of
Information Technology/Information Policy, Planning, and Training
Division. Kristen’s assignment to PARS will begin Oct. 14 and ends
Feb. 2, 2019.
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 New Acting
Directors of NIFA Communications Office
Dr. Bill Hoffman will serve a 120-day detail as
interim director of NIFA"s Communications Staff (CS). n addition to his
duties as NIFA's Chief of Staff, Bill will provide daily oversight of CS functions and duties. Bill came to NIFA in 2002, and has served as a
program specialist, national program leader, and program and analysis officer.
Prior to joining NIFA, he worked for five years with Penn State Cooperative
Extension and in the private sector for five years.
Following Dr. Hoffman’s tour, Josh Stull will serve a
120-day tour. Josh is NIFA’s Congressional and Stakeholder Affairs Officer. In this position he leads NIFA’s congressional and
legislative activities and works to educate members of Congress and staff on
NIFA’s mission in agricultural research, education, and extension. Josh came to
NIFA from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, where he served as
acting director of Congressional and Public Affairs from November 2015 until
April 2016 and then as the Congressional and Public Affairs Staff team lead of
from May until June 2016.
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 Grass-Cast: A New
Grassland Productivity Forecast for the Northern Great Plains
Every spring, ranchers face the same difficult
challenge—trying to guess how much grass will be available for livestock to
graze during the upcoming summer. In May, a new Grassland Productivity Forecast
or “Grass-Cast” published its first forecast to help producers in the
northern Great Plains reduce this source of uncertainty. This new, experimental
grassland forecast is supported by the USDAs’ Agricultural Research Service,
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the National Drought
Mitigation Center. Read
the full USDA article.
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NIFA Invests $6 Million in Animal Genome Research
NIFA announced three
Animal Genome Research awards that will improve
functional annotation of swine, chickens, and cattle genomes. This research
will help identify the genetic basis of production and health traits, leading
to the selection of genetically superior livestock and poultry. Improved farm
productivity, improved animal health, and product quality improvement that will
increase exports are a few of the ultimate goals of the federal investment. These
grants are a part of NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).
NIFA Invests $7.5 Million in Plant Physiology Research
NIFA announced 21
Plant Physiology Research awards that will advance research to improve
plant production, which is critical to the sustainability and competitiveness
of United States agriculture. Future improvements to production systems require
a better understanding of inter-related factors affecting agricultural plants
and their resilience to climate variability, nutritional quality, and water-and
nutrient-use efficiency. The Physiology of Agricultural Plants Program
supports research that addresses these needs at the molecular, cellular,
biochemical, and whole-organism levels. These grants are a part of NIFA’s
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).
NIFA Invests $8.6 Million towards Preventing Childhood
Obesity
NIFA announced six
integrated research, education, and extension awards designed to prevent
childhood obesity in the United States. These awards focus on underserved
communities, family-centered health, involvement with strong communities, and
academic partners to improve children’s overall health through obesity
prevention efforts. In addition, the awards support long-range improvements in the
sustainability of agriculture and food systems for improved health. These
grants are a part of NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).
NIFA Invests $8 Million in Research in Animal Nutrition,
Growth, and Lactation
NIFA announced 21 Animal
Nutrition, Growth, and Lactation awards that will lead to better management
strategies for animal production systems, enhance production efficiency, and
further develop high quality animal products for human use. These advances will
come from new foundational knowledge into the cellular, molecular, genomic and
whole animal management strategies brought about by the 21 projects. Rural
prosperity brought about through greater farm profitability and increased
exports are a two of the ultimate goals of the federal investment. These grants
are part of NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).
Tribal College
Research Area of Expertise
Tribal College Research Area of Expertise (TCRAE) assists
1994 land-grant institutions in building research capacity through competitive
funding of applied projects that address student educational needs and solve
community, reservation, or regional problems consistent with the 1994 Research
Grants. Read
the full TCRAE RFA.
Food and
Agriculture Defense Initiative: Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN)
The Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative: Extension Disaster Education Network provides
national coordination of EDEN for outreach services to enhance biosecurity of
the U.S. agriculture and food systems. Read the full EDEN RFA.
Air Force Personal
Financial Readiness Program Evaluation Development
The Air Force Personal Financial Readiness Program (PFRP)
develop and complete a comprehensive program evaluation of personal financial readiness
program supporting Air Force members and their families. Read the full Air Force PFRP RFA.
Children, Youth
and Families at Risk Professional Development and Technical Assistance Program
CYFAR marshals the resources of the land-grant and the
Cooperative Extension Systems so that, in collaboration with other
organizations, they can develop and deliver educational programs to youth who
are at risk for not meeting basic human needs. These programs provide youth
with the skills they need to lead positive, productive, and contributing lives;
participating youth make a difference socially. Read
the full CYFAR RFA.
Comparative
Genomics Research Program
NIFA invites applications for research to develop comparative approaches that may help to understand genome structure and
function and the relationship between genomic features and phenotypes. NIFA
will support studies that enable the use of a diverse array of species to
advance our ability to improve genome annotations that complements Functional
Annotation of Animal Genomes. Read
the full Comparative Genomics Research RFA.
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