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Making A Difference
 Teacher and students looking at seedliings. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
NIFA Invests in Positive Youth Development
The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has announced an investment in youth development projects to advance youth understanding of climate change and nutrition security challenges, while invigorating their interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and careers.
This $39 million investment across five projects is made through NIFA’s Youth Innovators Empowering Agriculture Across America (YEA) program, part of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), the nation’s leading competitive grants program for agricultural sciences.
YEA programs will lead to a reimagined youth development outreach system that will prepare young people for careers in agriculture and food sciences, and support youth programs like 4-H. These projects also support AFRI priorities of addressing climate change via climate-smart agriculture and forestry; advancing racial justice, equity and opportunity; creating more and better market opportunities; tackling food and nutrition insecurity; and promoting workforce development.
Read more.
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News from NIFA
EXCITE Launches Implementation Phase for Immunization Education Projects at 37 Land-grant Universities
Cooperative Extension across the country will be continuing immunization education work through the Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement (EXCITE). The Extension Foundation, in cooperation with the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, through an interagency agreement with NIFA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are funding the Cooperative Extension System to increase vaccine confidence among rural and other underserved communities.
For the new implementation phase, 33 projects from 37 institutions have been awarded, representing all six Land-grant University regions. This phase expands the project scope to include all adult immunizations and COVID-19.
EXCITE Program Logo.
Meet NIFA SBIR/STTR Representatives on America’s Seed Fund Road Tour–Midwest
In July, staff from NIFA’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs will join the Midwest leg of America’s Seed Fund Road Tour to help small businesses, innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, small technology firms and others navigate the over $4 billion in early-stage funding opportunities through America’s Seed Fund.
The tour — which features programming as well as 1:1 in-person meetings — will stop in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa from July 17–21. Visit the American Seed Fund Road Tour website to register.
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In Case You Missed It
USDA Unveils New Tool to Track Federally Funded Investments
USDA has released two new data dashboards that allow users the unprecedented ability to access high-level data about NIFA’s agricultural research funding investments and track the status of their grant applications.
USDA stakeholders and partners, members of the media and the public can now immediately access, download and save data on all NIFA competitive and capacity funds granted since fiscal year 2018. This tool offers users the ability to pull information on funding investments by research program and grant type, congressional district, recipient (including Land-grant, minority-serving institutions, Tribal, Hispanic-serving Institutions, and Extension), and other focused searches.
The NIFA Grant Funding Dashboard allows users to search for information related to requirements, waivers, and the amount of match funding provided by recipient type and award. Users can also explore a funding map to find NIFA funding obligations by states and congressional districts. The NIFA Application Status Dashboard enables users to quickly check the status of their application using their assigned Grants.gov tracking number.
Learn more about these new tools.
Scientist with tablet. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Read more: Impacts of NIFA-funded research and Extension projects on our Blogs page.
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Award Announcements
NIFA Invests $9 Million to Improve Soil Health
NIFA is supporting efforts to improve soil health by supporting 13 projects with $9 million through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).The Soil Health program area priority in the AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program Area supports research projects that will advance scientific understanding of soil processes and interactions and develop new methods to improve or maintain soil health and productivity while maintaining or improving environmental health and sustainability of our natural resource base.
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NIFA webinar graphic.
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Impact of NIFA-Funded Research and Outreach
Wheat Breeding Students Across U.S. Receive Texas Drone Training
Before they can fly, collect data and help build the strongest public wheat breeding program possible, students from across the nation needed to learn the software and techniques of wheat phenomics gathering by unmanned aircraft system.
Students involved in public wheat breeding programs around the U.S. participated in the first Wheat Coordinated Agricultural Project (WheatCAP) workshop, hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension, to learn about collecting and processing phenomics data using unmanned aircraft systems.
WheatCAP, led by the University of California, Davis, is in its fourth round of NIFA funding — $15 million over five years. Learn more about this project.
Students involved in public wheat breeding programs around the U.S. participated in the first Wheat Coordinated Agricultural Project workshop to learn about collecting and processing phenomics data using unmanned aircraft systems. (Texas A&M AgriLife drone photo by Shannon Baker)
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USDA News
OCE Seeking Feedback on Updated GHG Technical Guidelines
The USDA Office of the Chief Economist is inviting public comment on the Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity‐Scale Inventory report, which provides methods to quantify entity-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors. Comments received will be used to further refine the update to the report in preparation for publication as a USDA Technical Bulletin.
See the Federal Register Notice for more information.
USDA graphic symbol
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LinkedIn Post of the Week
“Access to information is one of the many ways NIFA works to increase equity, be responsible stewards of taxpayer funds and provide excellent customer service to grant applicants.” - NIFA Director Dr. Manjit Misra. The NIFA Grant Funding and Application Status dashboards will increase transparency across the grant application process and provide applicants insight on the status of their application in the grant-making lifecycle. Learn about the dashboards: https://lnkd.in/d_xyRRmE
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The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is committed to ensuring that its programs and services are accessible to all individuals, including individuals with disabilities and individuals with limited English proficiency. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in any NIFA event, please contact the appropriate Program staff no later than 10 days prior to the event. To find Program staff by event, please visit the NIFA Calendar of Events. NIFA Language access services, such as interpretation or translation of vital information, will be provided free of charge to limited English proficient individuals upon request. If you need interpretation or translation services please visit NIFA language services or contact Lois Tuttle, Equal Opportunity Specialist, at Lois.Tuttle@usda.gov or (443) 386-9488 no later than 10 days prior to the event.
NIFA’s mission is to invest in and advance agricultural research, education, and Extension that solves societal challenges. NIFA’s investments in transformative science directly support the long-term prosperity and global preeminence of U.S. agriculture. Keep informed about NIFA, USDA, our Land-grant and non-Land-grant university partners, and stakeholders with the NIFA Update. Read past issues online, sign up for email updates or follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAImpacts or LinkedIn @usda-nifa.
If you wish to submit a news item or information, send an email to NIFAUpdate.
USDA is an equal opportunity lender, provider, and employer.
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