FFAR » Communications & Results

Grantee Communications Toolkit

Congratulations on receiving a FFAR award! This toolkit aims to help you fulfill the communication requirements for your grant and promote your research.

Contact

communications@foundationfar.org

FFAR’s Communications Team will support you through the lifecycle of your grant from announcing your initial award to publicizing news about your results. Our Communications Team is committed to scientific accuracy and works with you and matching funders to widely communicate the importance of your research and its impact.

Communications Requirements in Grant Agreements

FFAR encourages grantees to review all sections of their Grant Agreement, especially articles about publicly announcing your award and referencing FFAR in public-facing materials about your research.

Grantees must treat all news mentioning your FFAR-funded grant as confidential and embargoed until the FFAR’s Communications Team and your institution determine an announcement plan and date.

Referencing FFAR

All public announcements about your grant should name FFAR as a funder. In the first mention of our organization, spell out our full name and include the abbreviation in parentheses: Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR). Always use the ampersand (&) instead of the word “and” in our title. Use the abbreviation, FFAR (pronounced “far”), in all subsequent mentions.

Drafting Press Releases & Other Written Communications

The FFAR Communications Team generally drafts press releases, which we send to the grantee and matching funders for review. If FFAR does not plan to distribute a press release, we will inform you and outline an alternative communications plan.

If your organization chooses to send your own press release or any other news related to the grant, please coordinate directly with the FFAR Communications Team. Per the terms of your Grant Agreement, you must name FFAR as a funder in any written materials about your grant, and a member of the FFAR Communications Team must approve these materials in advance of publication.

We send press releases to our stakeholder distribution list, a targeted media list and select Members of Congress, and post the release in the News section of our website. We also frequently highlight our grantees in our monthly newsletter. We welcome you or your organization to share the press release with your network as well.

Credit FFAR in publications and any news about this award, including impacts/results

Your Grant Agreement requires that you acknowledge FFAR’s role as a funder of your research and include disclaimer language stating that the opinions expressed in the publication do not necessarily represent FFAR’s views.

Ensure that your publications or other public-facing materials avoid explicit or implicit language or references stating or implying that FFAR promotes or endorses any specific product or technology for profit or otherwise.

We require that grantees email the FFAR Communications Team in advance of distributing news about your award, including but not limited to: publications including scientific journals, press releases, videos, upcoming events, etc. Likewise, FFAR will reach out to the grantee’s press contacts to obtain written permission before issuing public announcements.

Help Us Promote Your Work

We rely on you to share exciting updates about your work between progress reports, and we do not want you to miss opportunities to promote your research. Below is a list of ways you can engage with our Communications Team:

We highlight results from FFAR-funded research in the Breakthroughs section of our website. If your research yields new knowledge, strategies, technologies or tools, etc., email the FFAR Communications Team and we will help promote these findings.
We can also help promote articles published in scientific journals. Per the Grant Agreement, we kindly remind you that FFAR must be credited as a funder in any written communications about the grant.
- Additionally, grantees must alert FFAR if FFAR-funded research is published in a scientific journal.

Send original photography & videos

Watch this short guide on submitting the best photography and videos

We are always looking for candid, original imagery of you and your research in action. This can include you or others on your team conducting research in the field or in a lab, close-ups of field work, technological solutions being employed, comparisons of your subject with and without the intervention, etc.

Share any social media graphics or infographics related to the research that we can use on our social media platforms and/or website.

Name FFAR as a funder & use our logo

Download our logo below and please email the FFAR communications contact listed in your grant agreement so we can promote your webpage.
Download FFAR’s logo

Alert us if you are speaking at an event or conference about FFAR-funded research

Email us with details about the speaking engagement and we will do our best to amplify this news to our stakeholders.

After the speaking engagement, we encourage you to email us images or video snippets.

Author an Insight

We feature thought leadership through Insights from partners, stakeholders and grantees on our website. This platform allows you to share your unique view and perspectives.
Download our Insights Guidelines for tips on authoring a FFAR Insight.

Describing FFAR

FFAR is an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit organization. While FFAR is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), we work closely with USDA to fund research that ensures complementarity and avoids duplicating efforts.

FFAR builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing the biggest food and agriculture challenges. FFAR further supports the next generation of food and agriculture scientists.

Learn more about What We Do