Southern Administrative Heads and CARET Joint Summer Meeting

NIFA Update – Brent Elrod, USDA-NIFA

Federal Budget

• The President’s FY25 Budget Proposal was submitted to Congress in Spring 2024, and includes more than $1.7 billion for NIFA discretionary programs; this would be a $53 million, or 3% increase to the 2024 enacted levels.
• In the budget proposal, the allocation for capacity programs is $894 million, which is an increase of $27 million, or 3%, above the 2024 enacted level.
• NIFA’s Budget Formulation team has completed the analysis of House and Senate Full Committee Markup bill and report language. We are monitoring the status of additional amendments from the House, as the Committee on Rules continues work to assign a rule and bring H.R.
• 9027 to the floor for vote. The Senate Committee on Rules & Administration does not yet show a scheduled hearing for S.4690.
• For NIFA in FY25, the House is recommending a $10.6M decrease from 2024 discretionary appropriated levels; this is a decrease of -0.63%. The Senate is recommending a $3M decrease, which is a -0.18% decrease.
• Both recommendations sustain the 2024 federal admin appropriated levels, which would mean NIFA will not receive increases to support salary cost increases.
• The analysis of NIFA’s FY25 President’s Budget is available under the NIFA website Resources page:
  https://www.nifa.usda.gov/data/archived-budget-information; https://www.nifa.usda.gov/resources
• As we wait for the 2025 appropriations process to unfold, it can be helpful to understand how much funding Congress appropriated to NIFA in Fiscal Year 2024.
• Overall, NIFA received $1,684,157 in Discretionary funding, which reflected a $28.3 million or 2% decrease from the 2023 enacted funding. We received $245.4 million in Mandatory funding, which is $12 million above the 2023 enacted level or a 5% increase.
• Mandatory program increases are attributed to Congress appropriating additional one-time funds for Urban, Indoor & Other Emerging Ag Production as well as Scholarships for Students at 1890 Institutions; and extending the Emergency Citrus Disease Research and Development Trust Fund for another year.
• Within Discretionary programs, the general provision for Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program was not funded, there were 6 programs decreased from the 2023 Enacted levels between 40-55%, 11 programs decreased between 12%-25%, and 7 programs decreased between 1%-9%. Program specifics include:
  • AFRI — $445.2M ($9.8M decrease)
  • Federal Administration, Grants Management Systems – $25.6M ($3M decrease)
  • SARE — $48M ($2M decrease)
  • Enhancing Ag Opportunities for Military Veterans – $3M   ($2M decrease)
  • New Technologies for Ag Extension – $1.6M ($1.9M decrease)
  • Capacity Programs – maintained at 2023 Enacted level, $866M
  • Minority Serving Institution Programs – $304.9M, $805K decrease
• NIFA is in the final push to get FY24 funding to your institutions. The fourth quarter of the fiscal year is our busiest in terms of processing awards. You may have already noticed the pace of award announcements gathering steam. Congratulations to your faculty who have been successful this cycle. Here are a few examples from the Southern region shared in a recent NIFA Update.
  • Understanding the Role of the Soil Microbiome in Plant Health (Farms.com, 7/25) Audrey Gamble, associate professor at Auburn University and researcher in the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, recently received $294,000 from USDA NIFA to investigate the effect of cover crop species on soil microbial community structure and function and to examine the influence of different cover crop species on cotton root development and water and nutrient uptake. The long-term goal of this project, according to Gamble, is to improve sustainability of cotton production by leveraging the benefits of cover crops to enhance plant development, nutrient uptake and water use efficiency by managing for improved soil microbial structure and function.
  • Unlocking Genetic Secrets: New UK Research Project Set to Transform Equine, Animal Science (University of Kentucky, Jordan Strickler, 7/24) In what could be a leap forward for equine science, Theodore Kalbfleisch, a University of Kentucky researcher and professor of veterinary science at the UK Maxwell
  • H. Gluck Equine Research Center, is helping spearhead a three- year project to map the genetic blueprints of 13 horse breeds and their relatives. Funded by a $765,000 award from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, this initiative, titled “Functionally Annotated Equine Pangenome with Infrastructure for an Accessible, Integrative, Community Genomics Resource,” aims to further understand equine genetics. Researchers hope to pave the way for advancements in health, performance and disease prevention of equine genetics.
  • Genome Study Informs Restoration of American Chestnut Tree (ScienceDaily, 7/22) Native trees adapt to the climate and environmental conditions of their area to survive. Researchers at Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, in collaboration with the American Chestnut Foundation, confirmed this by examining the genome of American chestnut
  • High School Teachers, Undergraduate Students Gain Food Science Experience in AgriLife Research-led Project (AgriLife Today, Paul Schattenberg, 7/18) A new Texas A&M AgriLife Research-led project is engaging teachers and students in food science and nutrition research to help build a greater overall interest in academic and professional opportunities in food science. A cadre of six high school science, career technology and other educators from Texas, Georgia and Indiana recently participated in a five-day Food Science Summer Research Experience in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Food Science and Technology. Shortly after the teacher visit, eight undergraduate students from Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University came to the department for a four-week education and training program.
• These groups were some of the first participants in a three-year, $1 million-plus project funded by USDA NIFA. The project is focused on engaging teachers and students in innovative, high- impact, hands-on learning experiences that will build awareness of and interest in food science and technology as a possible career.
• Please also remind your faculty that the NIFA Application Status dashboard allows users to look up the status of their grant applications for NIFA funding opportunities.
• This tool offers a quick and easy way to view the status of applications for NIFA funding opportunities. The creation of this tool was a high priority for NIFA in an effort to ensure transparency and enhance the customer service experience for our stakeholders and partners.
• All visitors to NIFA’s website can utilize this tool to determine the status of a grant application by inputting their Grants.gov tracking number. Users should input the Grants.gov tracking number assigned by Grants.gov when an application is submitted for a NIFA funding opportunity. The number can be entered as GRANT99999999 or 999999999. Hovering over each status type provides additional information on application status.
• In sifting through additional nuggets of good funding news to share: Through AFRI, we recently published a modification to the Foundational and Applied Science RFA to include 21 proposed research topics from commodity boards — which represents the highest number of topics we’ve reached.
• Notably, we also have our first dedicated Extension topic – co-funded by the National Pork Board. Applicants can request up to $300K for projects that educate Extension agents, health professionals and community leaders on the role of fresh lean meats, such as pork, in averting nutritional deficiencies and promoting optimal health.
• Your research faculty exploring solutions to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza likely saw that a new interagency agreement with the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service is increasing the pot of available funding by $10M in priority areas within the AFRI Foundational and Applied Sciences RFA. That application deadline is August 2024 with the goal of issuing awards by the end of the calendar year.
• And on July 11, 2024 NIFA announced the availability of $4.5 million in funding to establish three additional USDA Nutrition Hubs in communities across the country. The new Nutrition Hubs will provide tailored and scalable approaches to equitably advance food and nutrition security and help prevent diet-related chronic diseases, especially in historically underserved communities.
• The additional Hubs will create a network that builds on the work of the pilot Nutrition Hub established last year in partnership with Southern University and A&M College under USDA’s Agricultural Science Center of Excellence for Nutrition and Diet for Better Health (ASCEND for Better Health) initiative.
• Applications are due October 3, 2024 for Integrated Extension, Research, and Education Projects, so participation from across your universities and colleges is welcome.
• We’ve also begun to roll out our initial round of FY25 RFAs, so be on the lookout for announcements of most of our major capacity programs in the coming weeks. Please pay attention to submission deadlines and have those responsible reach out to us with any questions.

Farm Bill

• In terms of the Farm Bill, while NIFA does not take positions on draft legislative text or pending legislation, we are alert that discussions are well underway. The agency stands ready to provide technical assistance and education that Congressional committees seek as they consider changes or enhancements to the titles that support NIFA programs.

Civil Rights Compliance

• NIFA appreciates your commitment and effort to making sure your institutions comply with federal civil rights requirements. To assist in meeting that goal, NIFA offers technical assistance on civil rights requirements for all who receive federal funding.
• This technical assistance can be provided as part of a compliance review, through a direct request, or at conferences like NERAOC. We also continue to offer support to our federally funded recipients through quarterly calls on civil rights topics.
• Our Equal Opportunity staff encourages grantees and stakeholders to nominate topics for the quarterly calls so that NIFA can provide direct guidance on civil rights concepts while encouraging open dialogue through Q-and-A sessions.
• For any compliance-related inquiries, please contact Senior Equal Opportunity Specialist Shabnam Izadi at Shabnam.Izadi@usda.gov.

NIFA Reporting System

• On another compliance note, thank you for your continued efforts in ensuring that your institutions timely submit their required reports into the NIFA Reporting System, which has been under development since 2020.
• Reporting compliance for the FY 2023 Financial Report — which was due on July 1 — is at 86%. The OGFM supplemental is due August 19, 2024, and should be submitted through the NRS Financial Module.  (OGFM supplemental – This requirement applies only to 1862 Land‐grant Universities that are required to expend a specified percentage of Hatch Act and Smith‐Lever Act formula grant funds on multistate extension and integrated research and extension activities. This requirement does not apply to 1862 Land-grant Universities in American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.)
• As part of the agency’s Grants Modernization Initiative, we are continuing our analysis and customization of the eRA tool, which we expect to pilot for a small number of programs beginning in FY 2025 as part of a longer on-ramp to the adoption of this system by NIFA and our partners.
• As of now, there are no changes to our reporting systems. Please let your teams know that users should continue using REEport and NRS to submit the required reports.

4-H Positive Youth Development

• Skip NIFA recently announced Dr. Manoharan Muthsamy as its new Division Director. He stepped into his role just as we were hosting the 4- H National Conference in April 2024. In addition to convening our largest number of conference attendees, he and his team are overseeing the funding that supports the Coordinated Network and regional leads administering the Youth Empowering Agriculture awards. We also remain committed to working in tandem with ECOP 4-H and 4-H Council on shared interests that promote positive youth development.

NextGen

• Through our NextGen program, we are supporting and preparing more than 20,000 diverse future leaders to serve as the next generation of the food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences workforce.
• Funded by $262.5 million in ARPA funds, the NextGen program is a historic USDA investment is supporting student scholarships, experiential learning, and outreach and engagement for students enrolled at minority-serving institutions.
• We recently hosted more than 100 students at our headquarters in Washington for a NextGen Student Summit, which brought students from 11 states and Puerto Rico, representing more than 20 colleges and universities.

Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan

• The agency’s Climate Change Priority Team has made substantial progress in advancing our Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan through our programming, strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, and stakeholder outreach. The plan is posted at:
  NIFA Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan | NIFA (usda.gov).

Food Loss and Waste

• In addition to climate change, another cross-agency federal initiative is Food Loss and Waste, which recently welcomed the U.S. Agency for International Development as a federal partner.
• USDA announced on May 30 the signing of a formal agreement with the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to renew the interagency collaboration, which has been working since 2018 to cut food loss and waste in the United States.
• On June 12, 2024, the White House released the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics. The actions outlined by the USDA, EPA, and FDA in this strategy will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions (including methane), save households and businesses money, and build cleaner communities by reducing food loss and waste.
• In advancing this work, NIFA recently invested $4 million — split between Purdue and Ohio State— to create a Center for Research, Behavioral Economics and Extension on Food Loss and Waste; as well as a Pilot Consumer Education Campaign on Food Loss and Waste.

ARP Technical Assistance Investment Program

• We also recently held a project directors meeting in Detroit that brought together the cooperators in our American Rescue Plan Technical Assistance Investment (ARPTAI) program, which is designed to ensure equitable participation in all USDA programs and services among underserved farmers, ranchers, forest landowners and operators.
• With an investment of more than $100 million, this program is supporting projects being undertaken by 34 cooperators across the country to develop technical assistance projects and networks that will help farmers become more successful.
• These cooperators are working to help their clients learn how to access and navigate USDA programs and services, and also helping build skills in financial record keeping, business management and estate planning.

Technical Assistance

• NIFA continues to increase access to our funding opportunities for prospective applicants. We recently completed on-site workshops at minority-serving institutions in South Carolina, Texas, and Salish- Kootenai College in Montana.
• Our Learning and Development Team earlier this year launched a series of Grant Applicant/Awardee Technical Assistance sessions, which we’re calling GAATA for short. Resources are housed at Grant Training/Technical Assistance | NIFA (usda.gov).
• We are planning an October session on post-award management and a November one on reporting. You can get updates on when those are scheduled through NIFA Update | NIFA (usda.gov). The best way to stay informed about scheduled listening sessions and other events is to subscribe to the weekly NIFA Update newsletter, which you can do at USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (govdelivery.com)
• The LGU2U Initiative, which connects our staffs and strategically matches LGU expertise with NIFA’s staff, has moved into a new phase based on a Zoom platform called collaboration coffees.
• The first collaboration coffee, hosted by our colleagues in the Western region, was held on June 18, and focused on a very relevant topic for this group, which is regional associations and how they connect to NIFA. Future sessions will be announced in the NIFA Update.