New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award Contingent on Funding Availability

FFAR welcomes applications from all domestic institutions: 

• Institutions of higher education (including public or state-controlled institutions and private institutions) 

• Nonprofit and for-profit research organizations 

• Government-affiliated research agencies 

In keeping with FFAR goals to reach a broad range of institutions and individuals who participate in its programs, FFAR welcomes applications from the full range of higher education institutions, including colleges and universities of various sizes and across geographic regions.

Institutions may submit one nominee to the 2026 New Innovator Award program.  

Faculty members at eligible institutions with the creative ideas, skills, knowledge and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research program as Principal Investigator (PI) are invited to work with their institution to develop an application for support.   

FFAR welcomes applications from all applicants who meet the following eligibility criteria: 

• The nominated faculty member must have been hired on or after August 1, 2022, for a tenure-track or equivalent position and may work in any discipline or any department within the institution.   

• Preference will be given to individuals near the onset of their independent research career and who are within eight (8) years of receiving a Ph.D. or equivalent degree.   

• Individuals with significant research experience prior to obtaining their faculty position will not be considered for this award. For this funding opportunity, significant research experience is defined as a nominee that has been awarded a substantial research grant (three to five years of support) or has received project funding totaling over $1M within the time of their tenure position or has been awarded similar career development awards with similar budgetary scopes. 

• The proposed research application must directly benefit U.S. agricultural interests. 

FFAR recognizes that agriculture and food sciences are highly complex, requiring individuals from a variety of disciplines to realize the potential in each field or research area. Particularly for early-stage investigators, collaborators are often essential for success. While this award is given to an outstanding early-career investigator, applicants should include information regarding any essential collaborators and include letters of support from those collaborators. In these letters, the collaborators should comment on the potential of the individual to achieve success. 

FFAR wishes to advise interested applicants that it has limited programmatic funds remaining and cannot make any awards selected through this Request for Applications (RFA) until additional funds are allocated to the Foundation. FFAR is proceeding with this RFA to ensure that the Foundation can quickly launch new projects should new funding be allocated. Any selections will be contingent on the availability of funds. FFAR strongly encourages potential applicants to consider FFAR’s current funding situation when deciding whether to apply for the 2026 New Innovator Award.

FFAR requests up to $450,000.00 are available for all proposed projects, contingent on funding availability. There is no maximum on the amount of matching funds that may be included in the total budget. Projects up to 36 months in length are eligible for funding. Contingent project start dates range from January 1, 2027 to March 1, 2027. Successful projects will receive disbursements contingent upon meeting reporting requirements (see Section VIII).

Key budget considerations are noted below, and additional budgetary guidelines can be found on FFAR’s website. Applicants are encouraged to contact FFAR’s Grants Team at grants@foundationfar.org to discuss any concerns. 

• Matching funds are optional for this funding opportunity.  
• Lack of matching funds will not influence the review of the application.
• Matching funds must meet FFAR’s Matching Funds Guidelines, noting that they cannot be from a U.S. federal government entity.
• No more than 50% of the required match may be in-kind contributions.
• Funds already committed as a match or dedicated to another project cannot be offered as a match. Matching funds must correspond to project costs in the budget justification.
• Salaries of Principal Investigator(s) are allowed for time not covered by institutional or other grant funds. 
• Tuition cannot be charged as a direct cost for FFAR awards. 
• FFAR funds cannot be used for building construction and/or commercial scaling. 
• A maximum of 15% of direct costs may be used for indirect costs (IDC), including subcontracts, if applicable. Please see FFAR’s Indirect Costs Policy for more details. 
• Reasonable budgets work in favor of the applicant. Budgets that are not commensurate with the proposed work or poorly justified will negatively affect the overall evaluation of the application. 

FFAR anticipates granting up to ten (10) awards, contingent on receiving additional funding. The actual number of awards will depend on the quality and budgets of successful applications. FFAR reserves the right to negotiate all or none of the applications received for funding consideration under this opportunity.  

All applications must be submitted by the deadline date through FFAR’s online application Grant Management System. Applications submitted outside of this system will not be considered. If you already have an account, you may start a new application. If you are a new user, register for an account by clicking the “Create Account” button located under the Sign In button on the bottom right side of the page. 

Once you log in, you may begin working on your application. Please be sure to save your work often. To access a saved application, please do so through your Grant Management Account. 

Only applications submitted by the deadline through FFAR’s Grant Management System will be accepted and considered eligible for evaluation. To be fair to all our applicants, FFAR will not grant extensions to applicants who missed the deadlines posted in the Key Dates section. 

FFAR will review nominations against eligibility criteria. Only those meeting the criteria will be invited to submit full applications. Email invitations will be sent to those eligible by March 25, 2026. 

For questions related to the online submission system, please contact FFAR’s Grants Management Team at grants@foundationfar.org. FFAR’s Grants Office Hours are held the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 12:00pm ET; interested attendees should  register in advance.  

For questions related to the New Innovator Award program, please contact Dr. LaKisha Odom at lodom@foundationfar.org. 

FFAR strives to respond to inquiries within two (2) business days, but our response time depends on the volume of questions received and the complexity of the questions asked. Please note that we do not monitor mailboxes in the evenings, weekends or federal holidays.