Capacity Building Grants for Non-Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture Program

The NLGCA Program, under assistance listing number 10.326, will assist NLGCA institutions in maintaining and expanding their capacity to conduct education, research, outreach, and integrated activities relating to agriculture, renewable resources, and other similar disciplines. NLGCA institutions may use the funds to maintain and expand capacity: 1. to successfully compete for funds from Federal grants and other sources to carry out educational, research, outreach, and integrated activities that address priority concerns of national, regional, State, and local interest; 2. to disseminate information relating to priority concerns to: a. interested members of the agriculture, renewable resources, and other relevant communities; b. the public; and c. any other interested entity; 3. to encourage members of the agriculture, renewable resources, and other relevant communities to participate in priority education, research, outreach, and integrated activities by providing matching funds to leverage grant resources, and through: a. the purchase or other acquisition of equipment and other infrastructure (not including alteration, repair, renovation, or construction of buildings); b. the professional growth and development of the faculty of the NLGCA Institution; and c. the development of graduate assistantships.

Applicants for the NLGCA Program must meet all the requirements discussed in this NOFO. Failure to meet the eligibility criteria by the application deadline may result in exclusion from consideration or preclude NIFA from making an award. For those new to Federal financial assistance, NIFA’s About Grants provides highly recommended information about grants and other resources to help understand the Federal awards process. Applications may only be submitted by an NLGCA certified as such by NIFA at the time of application. A current list of NLGCAs certified by NIFA can be found on the NLGCA Program webpage or the NLGCA List webpage. Section 7102 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 removed the opt-in, opt-out language that had previously required Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities (HSACU) and McIntire-Stennis Colleges and Universities to relinquish that status if they wanted to pursue NLGCA designation (See Part I, A for legislative authority). There are no longer any such limitations, and HSACUs as well as McIntire-Stennis Colleges and Universities may request NLGCA designation. Non-land-grant colleges and universities may subcontract to organizations not eligible to apply, provided such organizations are necessary for the conduct of the project. All institutions certified as NLGCA prior to December 21, 2018, must reapply for certification and meet the new criteria for NLGCA certification contained in the Federal Register Notice. In order for an institution to qualify as a NLGCA, it must be a public college or university offering a baccalaureate or higher degree in the study of agricultural sciences, forestry, or both, among the 32 specified Areas of Study: Agricultural and domestic animal services; agricultural and extension education services; agricultural and food products processing; agricultural business and management; agricultural communication or agricultural journalism; agricultural economics; agricultural engineering; agricultural mechanization; agricultural production operations; agricultural public services; agriculture; animal sciences; applied horticulture or horticulture operations; aquaculture; equestrian/equine studies; floriculture or floristry operations and management; food science; forest sciences and biology; forestry; greenhouse operations and management; international agriculture; natural resource...

NIFA evaluates each application in a two-part process. First, each application is reviewed to ensure that it meets the administrative requirements set forth in the NOFO. Second, a peer-review process (https://www.nifa.usda.gov/nifa-peer-review-process-competitive-grant-applications) will be used to evaluate the scientific and technical merit of applications that have meet the administrative requirements. After each peer review panel has completed deliberations, the responsible NIFA program staff will either recommend an application for support from available funds or decline an application due to insufficient funds or unfavorable review.

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Fiscal Year2025: A Planning/Workshop grant will develop a collaborative pathway to bring together secondary schools, community colleges, and food industry partners to address the demand for skilled food science professionals; a Regular/Research grant will use advanced biotechnological detection methods (genomics) to enhance food safety in fresh produce by detecting, quantifying, and characterizing Salmonella dynamics on fresh produce, allowing for the detection of both known pathogens and rare or emerging microbial threats; a Collaborative/Joint grant will establish a high-throughput data framework and robust tool based on artificial intelligence (AI) that supports sustainable water use strategies for crops grown under limited water conditions; a Large-scale Collaborative Initiative grant will improve the adsorption of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) forever through biochar, advance the use of biochar technology to enhance soil health, and thereby reduce food-chain transfer of forever chemicals.