Agriculture and Food Research Initiative – Foundational Program

The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) flagship competitive grant program and was established under section 7406 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill). AFRI supports work in six priority areas: plant health and production and plant products; animal health and production and animal products; food safety, nutrition, and health; renewable energy, natural resources, and environment; agriculture systems and technology; and agriculture economics and rural communities. In FY 2010, AFRI is soliciting applications through seven Requests for Applications (RFA). One RFA calls for research projects addressing the above six priority areas. Additional RFAs further address AFRI priority areas in five societal challenge areas. The five challenge area RFAs are: Childhood Obesity Prevention; Climate Change; Food Safety; Global Food Security; and Sustainable Bioenergy. These RFAs will support research, education, and extension to achieve significant, measurable outcomes. NIFA will also release a single, separate NIFA Fellowships Grant Program RFA to fund pre- and postdoctoral fellowship grants in April 2010. This RFA addresses the Foundational Program.