Research & Education Planning Grants

Notice: The Planning Grant Program is being revised. No Planning Grant call for proposals will be released in 2007.

Planning projects are intended to support researchers while they design more competitive broad-based projects,

Who can apply?
Including, but not limited to, teams of researchers from public and private institutions such as 1862 and 1890 land-grant universities, environmental agencies, historically black universities, USDA-ARS labs, non-governmental organizations, and community based organizations.

What activities are eligible?
R&E Planning Activity Grants will fund workshops, charettes, conference calls and other activities needed to bring people together to discuss and work out ideas to develop a full proposal.

R&E Planning Research Grants will fund focused research including statistically sound surveys, laboratory and/or field research needed to provide information necessary to develop a full proposal.

How much will the grants fund?
Planning Grant proposals are expected to be about $15,000 and last for one year.

Successful proposals include:

• Systems orientation. Instead of looking at just increasing yields or reducing inputs, systems research looks at all the parts of an agricultural production system to determine how each individual component interacts with the other components.
• Farmer or end-user involvement. Producers and consumers should be part of the process from problem identification through project development, implementation, dissemination of results, and evaluation.

For more information about Research & Education Planning Grants, email Jeff Jordan or call him at (770) 412-4787.