Tribal Colleges Education Equity Grants

The Tribal Colleges Education Equity Grants (TCEG) program is designed to help build Tribal education capacity in the food and agricultural sciences for Native Alaskan/American Indian students. The six legislatively mandated priorities are: � Curricula design and materials development � Faculty development and teacher preparation � Student experiential learning � Equipment and instrumentation for teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math � Student recruitment and retention � Instruction delivery systems and strategic partnerships

Applications may be submitted by any of the Tribal colleges and universities designated as 1994 Land-Grant Institutions under the Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994, as amended. This Act, as amended in Section 533(a), requires that each 1994 Land-Grant Institution be accredited or making progress towards accreditation and be recognized as a legal entity. If accreditation is being sought, a college must demonstrate its progress towards accreditation by a letter from a nationally recognized accreditation agency affirming receipt of application for an accreditation site visit or other such documentation. An applicant�s failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the time of an application deadline will result in NIFA returning the application without review or, even though an application may be reviewed, will preclude NIFA from making an award. Award recipients may subcontract to organizations not eligible to apply provided such organizations are necessary for the conduct of project.

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.