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Strengthening the Scientific Workforce

Our Scientific Workforce programs continue our longstanding commitment to address critical scientific workforce shortages.
Our Scientific Workforce programs continue our longstanding commitment to address critical scientific workforce shortages.

Program Contact:

Dr. LaKisha Odom
lodom@foundationfar.org

Partnerships & Development Contact:

Shannyn Smith
ssmith@foundationfar.org

Open Opportunities

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Prioritizing the Scientific Workforce

Addressing the accelerating and unprecedented global challenges faced by the U.S. food and agriculture system requires a dynamic and highly skilled scientific workforce. Moreover, developing a diverse and inclusive workforce is critical to drive innovation, foster creative solutions and lead pioneering science.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Bringing individuals with perspectives, experiences and backgrounds historically underrepresented in science to food and agriculture research results in more innovative and actionable outputs. We are committed, both internally and externally, to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion. We continue to embed greater diversity, equity and inclusion into our Scientific Workforce programs – both in designing research and training programs as well as in considering how results are used and communicated.

Our scientific workforce programs fill gaps in research, and prepare scientists for a range of potential career paths.

FFAR Fellows Program

The FFAR Fellows Program provides graduate students with professional development, research training and mentorship to advance their careers.

FFAR-OCP Disruptive Fertilizer Technology Fellows Program

This competitive fellowship aims to spur and foster disruptive innovation in the next generation of fertilizer research and development through a research challenge, whereby emerging young scientists in agriculture research can enhance their efforts in fertilizer efficiency research and technology development.

Kirchner Fellowship

The Kirchner Fellowship trains university students each year to evaluate agriculture business investments and gives them discretion over investment decisions for companies solving critical food and agriculture challenges.

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences

The NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences recognizes a mid-career scientist making an extraordinary contribution to food and agriculture research.

Nature-Based Future Challenges

Nature-based solutions leverage the functions of nature to provide solutions to climate change.

New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award

The New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award provides early investment to launch young faculty into successful scientific careers.

Tribal Agriculture Fellowship

The Tribal Agriculture Fellowship supports Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students pursuing technical, undergraduate and graduate degrees in agriculture and helps preserve and promote the legacy of agriculture in tribal communities.

Veterinary Student Research Fellowship

The Vet Fellows is a summer fellowship for veterinary students to pursue research on global food security and sustainable animal production.

Scientific Workforce Awarded Grants

FFAR Fellows Program 2024 Cohort

Year Awarded  2024

Location   Raleigh, NC

Matching Funders   North Carolina State University

FFAR Vet Fellows Sixth Cohort

Year Awarded  2024

Total award amount   $10,000 per student

Location   Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders   American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC)

Dr. Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra Awarded the 2024 NAS Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences

Year Awarded  2024

Total award amount   $1,000,000

Location   Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders   National Academy of Sciences (NAS)

Grantee Institution   University of California Davis

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The Latest

Insights

Our Insights highlight unique perspectives from across the food and agriculture community.

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The Importance of Healthy Indigenous Food Systems & How to Improve Them 

Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson

Assistant Professor - Indigenous Resiliency School of Natural Resources & the Environment Indigenous Reliance Center University of Arizona 

The Aim For Healthy, Productive & Environmentally Friendly, Southeastern Beef Calves

Federico Tarnonsky

FFAR Fellow (2022-2025), University of Florida

Entrepreneur Attributes Kirchner HBCU Fellowship to Career Success

Kwame Terra

Kwame Terra MPH

Kirchner Fellowship HBCU 2021 Cohort

Building Diversity & Inclusion in the Agriculture Technology Venture Capital Industry

LaKisha Odom, Ph.D.

Scientific Program Director Sustaining Vibrant Agroecosystems

Protecting the Vidalia Onion

Sujan Paudel

FFAR Fellow

Diversifying the Future of Venture Capital

The first cohort of the HBCU Kirchner Fellows are Bryana Pittman, Kwame Jackson and Martin Adu-Boahene who co-wrote this Insights piece to share the value of this fellowship and its potential impact.

A day on the Battlefield: Searching for Perennial defenses in wild places

Kelsey Peterson

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Taking Science Beyond the Bench: Critical Reflections for Change-Oriented Research

Krista Marshall

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Soil is Not Dirt

Aaron Prairie

2020-2023 FFAR Fellow

Heavy Metal and Chocolate: Not the Best Pairing  

Zachary Dashner

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Seeding a Resilient Wheat Microbiome

Lindsey Becker

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Systems Thinking for Sustainable Manure Management

Alison Deviney

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Fine-tuning photosynthesis

Dhruv Patel

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Do Cows Count Their Steps?

Miriam Martin

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Trait Selection, the Human Microbiome and Health

Nate Korth

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Dairy Cattle Metabolic Capacity: Milking It for all It’s Worth

Linda Beckett

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Climate change and Dairy Farming: Beating the Heat

Ananda Fontoura

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Combating Herbicide Resistance

Abby Barker

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Feedback Loops & Food Access

Gwendolyn Donley

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Research is Critical to Preventing the Next Pandemic

Tim Kurt, DVM

Scientific Program Director, October 2016- September 2022 Advanced Animal Systems

News

The latest news and updates from FFAR.

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USDA and FFAR Announce Innovation Challenge Projects Aimed at Catalyzing Transformative Research Solutions

FFAR and North Carolina State Announce 2024 FFAR Fellows

FFAR Names Sixth Cohort of Veterinary Fellows

Student Teams Combat Climate Change

FFAR Announces New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Awardees

FFAR & AAVMC Open Applications for 2024 FFAR Vet Fellows

Dr. Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra Awarded the 2024 NAS Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences

FFAR Seeks Nominations for 2024 New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award

FFAR and North Carolina State University Announce 2023 FFAR Fellows

Kirchner Fellowship HBCU 2023-24 Cohort Announced

FFAR Awards Fifth Cohort of Vet Fellows

FFAR & OCP North America Announce Fertilizer Fellowship Awardees & 2023 Opportunities

FFAR Announces New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Awardees

FFAR & AAVMC Open Applications for 2023 FFAR Vet Fellows

Partnership Empowers HBCU Students to Become Ag-Tech Impact Investors

FFAR Seeks Nominations for New Innovator Award

FFAR Announces 28 FFAR Fellows

FFAR Awards Fourth Cohort of Vet Fellows

Kirchner Food Fellowship Announces Second HBCU Cohort

FFAR and Native American Agriculture Fund Announce 2022 Cohort of Tribal Agriculture Fellows

Breakthroughs

Tools, technologies and strategies from the research we fund.

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Loyalty Shopper Card Intervention Creates Behavior Change

Breakthrough for Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality and health outcomes among adults

Developing an Extensive Database of US Groundwater Wells

Breakthrough for Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Management Through Innovative Governance & Optimal Agricultural Water Use Under Conflicting Objectives

Getting to the Root of the Problem: Fastidious Pathogens

Breakthrough for A Novel Bioassay for Culturing and Characterizing Fastidious Phytopathogens

Want to do more to support our pioneering research?