Grants Archive

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) announced the fourteen recipients of the 2021 Veterinary Student Research Fellowships (Vet Fellows) in partnership with the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). This fellowship creates opportunities for veterinary students to pursue research on global food security and sustainable animal production as FFAR is Awarding an Amount of $10,000 per student.

FFAR Grant Enhances Dairy Industry Sustainability

FFAR award amount $10,000,000

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $23,200,000

Location ROSEMONT, Ill.

Matching Funders Dairy Management Inc. and Newtrient

Dairy farmers face increasing pressure from the private and public sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental practices can offset the dairy industry’s carbon footprint, but additional research is needed to determine their effectiveness. Thus, the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a $10 million grant to the Dairy Research Institute (DRI) to support the dairy community’s Net Zero Initiative, an industry-wide effort to adopt practices and technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve environmental health.

FFAR Awards $2 Million Grant to Improve Sustainability in Corn Production

FFAR award amount $2,044,214

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $4,089,857

Location AMES, Iowa

Matching Funders Iowa State University, Bayer Crop Science, The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Purdue University and Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Maize breeding programs have increased corn yields over the years by altering plant characteristics (traits). Yet, our knowledge on which traits have been changed is limited while their impact on sustainability is relatively unknown. Led by Dr. Sotirios Archontoulis, Iowa State University researchers are examining corn hybrid characteristics at an unprecedented scale to analyze yield trends in the US Corn Belt, which includes most of the Midwest.

Accelerating Breeding Technology to Develop New Crops

FFAR award amount $385,512

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $535,512

Location Davis, California

Matching Funders Limagrain Europe

Program Accelerated Crop Breeding

Editing a plant’s genes can help the plant thrive during drought, extreme heat and other climate change-related crises. While this technology is key to future food security, it is expensive and relies on time-consuming tissue culturing – putting it out of reach of smaller labs. Due to the expense, gene editing is almost exclusively used on major crops such as corn. Researchers are developing accessible gene editing technology that also allows faster plant growth.

FFAR and OFRF Renew Partnership to Improve Soil Health Research

FFAR award amount $66,000

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $120,000

Location Santa Cruz, Calif.

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

The Organic Farming Research Foundation and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research are continuing their partnership to fund on-farm research advancing the climate benefits of organic agriculture systems. Priorities will focus specifically on the potential of organic agriculture to sequester carbon, mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reduce the environmental impacts of fertilizers and pesticides and build resilience to a changing climate.

SKY HIGH Consortium Agreement

FFAR award amount $1,061,576

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $6,630,342

Location Wageningen, The Netherlands

Matching Funders Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, Bayer, Bosman Van Zaal, Certhon, Dutch Research Council (NWO), Fresh Forward, Grodan, GrowX, Own Greens, Priva, Signify, Solynta, Unilever, Van Bergen Kolpa Architects

SKY HIGH: Vertical Farming, a revolution in plant production
Generating Urban Food Systems Solutions

Scaling New Crops for Sustainable Water Management: Building Supply Chains

FFAR award amount $1,997,454

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $3,997,423

Location Minneapolis, MN

Matching Funders Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, Cargill, Friends of the Mississippi River, Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, McKnight Foundation, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, NORI, Pipeline Foods, The Land Institute, Walton Family Foundation

Summer crops such as wheat, rice, and corn can be profitable for farmers, but post-harvest farmland is unproductive for several months during the off-season. Fallow land can accumulate a variety of water-related challenges, including soil nutrient loss and erosion and precipitation runoff. However, continuous living cover crops can prevent these challenges and maintain land in the off-seasons. The University of Minnesota is developing models for sustainable supply chains that create markets for crops farmers can grow between seasons.

SKY HIGH

FFAR award amount $1,061,576

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $6,630,342

Location Washington, DC

Vertical farming provides greater control of climate and nutrition conditions than outdoor or greenhouse facilities. Crops grown in vertical farming environments have the potential for enhanced nutritional value, longer shelf life, better taste and a shorter supply chain – plus they require little water and do not need pesticides. Yet, there are few researchers adapting crops to make them economical and sustainable in these production systems. SKY HIGH: Vertical Farming, a revolution in plant production, is a program to advance vertical farming by researching plant genetics and indoor growing conditions that help crops thrive and enhance desired qualities.

Irrigation Innovation Consortium Funds Seven Research Projects

FFAR award amount $533,126

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $1,512,550

Location Fort Collins, Colorado

Matching Funders The consortium, which is headquartered at Colorado State University, includes four other U.S. land-grant universities: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kansas State University, Texas A&M University and California State University-Fresno. The consortium’s founding and sustaining industry partners are: FFAR, Aqua Engineering, Irrigation Association, JAIN Irrigation, LI-COR, Lindsay Corporation, Northern Water, Valmont, Hunter Industries, Toro, Rubicon, Colorado Corn Growers Association and Senniger Irrigation Inc.

As freshwater resources become ever more precious, research in irrigation technology is critically needed to maximize efficiency. Water use efficiency is necessary to ensure resiliency in agricultural and landscape systems. The Irrigation Innovation Consortium is awarding seven grants tat enable industry and the public sector co-develop, test, prototype and improve equipment, technology and decision-support systems.

FFAR Awards Cornell University a Grant to Treat Udder Infection in Dairy Cattle

FFAR award amount $642,202

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $14,000,000

Location Ithaca, NY

Matching Funders New York Farm Viability Institute, Elanco

Program Seeding Solutions

Mastitis, a common and costly udder infection in dairy cattle is a major economic problem for dairy farmers. Cornell University researchers are exploring compounds secreted by stem cells as a potential therapy for mastitis.

Awarded GrantsBelow is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.

Challenge Area

Consortia

Program

Scientific Workforce Programs

Location

Year

Order

279 Grants found

FFAR Awards Third Cohort of Vet Fellows

FFAR Grant Enhances Dairy Industry Sustainability

FFAR Awards $2 Million Grant to Improve Sustainability in Corn Production

Accelerating Breeding Technology to Develop New Crops

FFAR and OFRF Renew Partnership to Improve Soil Health Research

SKY HIGH Consortium Agreement

SKY HIGH

Irrigation Innovation Consortium Funds Seven Research Projects

FFAR Awards Cornell University a Grant to Treat Udder Infection in Dairy Cattle

ICASA Awards Grants to Develop Animal-Health Monitoring and Diagnostic Technologies

FFAR Grant to Develop Vaccine for Tilapia Lake Virus

OFRF and FFAR Fund Research to Enhance Organic Potato Nutrition

PIP Lettuce Project

Precision Bred Adaptation of Elite Taurine Breeds of Beef and Dairy Cattle

Genome Editing Wheat for Durable and Sustainable Disease Resistance

Finding the Proper Levers: Identifying Leverage Points for Tranformation in Urban Food Systems Through Participatory Modeling

Modeling the Future of Food in Your Neighborhood

Environmental and Nutritional Benefits of Food Recovery and Redistribution: A Pilot Assessment in New York’s Capital Region

Evaluating Food Access Strategies in Austin To Improve Healthy Food Consumption and Food Security

Conservation of an Endophytic Insect-pathogenic Fungus for Plant Protection in Organic Cropping Systems.

Cover Crops for Soil Health: Demonstration of On-Farm Trial

Biosolarization: Harnessing the Sun and Organic Matterfor Weed Control

Accelerated Development of Crops of the Future

Biological Control of Cattle Fever Ticks in South Texas

Noninvasive Wellness Monitoring of Broiler Growout Using Continuous Audio Analytics

Development of an Automated Broiler Gait Score and Flock Activity Assessment System

Smart Monitoring of Broiler Welfare using Camera Technology and Machine Learning

Innovative On-Farm Broiler Welfare Assessment Using Imaging Techniques

Flockfocus – Developing Automated Surveillance Tools to Safeguard Chicken Welfare

OpticFlock: Automated Monitoring of Broiler Chicken Behavior That Prioritizes Animal Welfare

Environmental Enrichment Effects on Pig Welfare

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Research

Integrating Community and Modeling Efforts to Evaluate Impacts and Tradeoffs of Food System Interventions 2020

Open Market Consortium: Creating Economic Opportunities for Small and Mid-size Growers

FFAR Grant Examines Carbon Farming Effect on Soil Health

FFAR Grant Addressing Surface and Groundwater Pollution on Farms

FFAR Awards Grant to Reduce Water Waste in Crop Irrigation

Field-deployable biosensors for managing animal health

An Integrative Approach to Biofortification of Staple Crops

Digging deeper: Removing the barriers to soil compaction mitigation

Uncovering the Genetic Architecture of Inducible Chemical Defenses in Crop and Wild Sunflower for the Sustainable Control of Pests and Pathogens

Engineering crops for cultivation in controlled environments

Developing Novel Strategies for Improved Control and Sustainability of Grapevine Bunch Rot Management

Next-generation tools and strategies for genetic improvement of farmed oysters

Harnessing the soil microbiome to increase soil health and plant productivity

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

2020 FFAR Vet Fellows Program

Determining Environmental and Biological Conditions Influencing Lettuce Discoloration, Yield and Leaf Quality

Application of Homoacetogens from Marsupials for the Production of Volatile Fatty Acids and Rumen Bioaugmentation.

Computational methods to identify elemental accumulation genes

Improving yield characteristics through beneficial microbial selection in plants

Application of Homoacetogens from Marsupials for the Production of Volatile Fatty Acids and Rumen Bioaugmentation.

Improving precise genome editing systems in plants

Optimizing light parameters to increase shoot induction and elongation of transformed plants: initial studies in soybean

Integrating manure and covers crops and their impact on soil health

Identifying urban food system dimensions that foster food security resilience during a post pandemic era

Uncovering mechanistic underpinnings of regenerative farming systems on soil health

Impact of blended and structured refuge management tactics on Helicoverpa zea resistance risk implications for Bt crops

Resistance of Organically Grown Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L). Walp] to Virus Diseases

Connecting Concentrations to Curvature: How Osmotic Pressure Couples to Cell Membrane Function towards Understanding Nanoparticle Transport in Plants

A Multi-Tactic Approach for Minimizing Palmer Amaranth Seedbank Replenishment in Cotton

Characterizing grass development and physiological genetics for improved crop performance

Perennial Crops as Soil Health Agents: Assessing Novel Crops’ Belowground Ecology in Grain-Legume Biculture

Investigating the use of spray induced gene silencing to control Phytophthora infestans, causal agent of late blight

Awarded Grants
Below is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.