MEMBER ADVISORY

January 6, 2022

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has announced a grant opportunity with an anticipated amount of $12 million available for the USDA HSI Education Grants Program for FY 2022. The purpose of the program is to align HSI undergraduate and graduate students with the support necessary to prepare them for careers related to the food, agricultural and natural resources systems and sciences.

The deadline for applications is January 28, 2022. To apply for this grant opportunity, submit your application here.

The following grant categories will be accepted by NIFA with an aim to prepare accepted applicants for entry and mid-level employment or advancement into graduate programs focused on agriculture.

• Regular Grants, to support targeted, original, scientific education/teaching projects. Applicants will be eligible HSI institutions (two or 4- 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.
• 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 HSI 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.
• Collaboration Grants, 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 in order to promote and strengthen the institutional abilities to carry out higher education programs related to the food and agricultural sciences.
• Conference Grants, to 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. Applications are expected to outline a proposal for 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.

• Please refer to the application booklet for further information.

For questions, please contact Irma Lawrence at ilawrence@usda.gov or 816-926-1905.

HACU Member Advisories are a service of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)