Grants Archive

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

FFAR Fellows Program 2022 Cohort

Year Awarded 2022

Matching Funders North Carolina State University

A unique three-year fellowship that prepares up to 48 graduate students to be the next generation of food and agriculture scientists by using an interdisciplinary approach to career readiness. Fellows work with university and industry representatives, as well as their peers, to conduct urgent research and engage in professional development.

Improving Soil Health on Vineyards

Year Awarded 2022

FFAR award amount $999,003

Total award amount $2,600,000

Location Davis, CA

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders Jackson Family Wines

Nitrogen SAVings through soil hEalth (NSAVE): Leveraging regenerative agriculture to reduce nitrogen inputs, increase farmer profits & mitigate climate change

Year Awarded 2022

FFAR award amount $998,784

Total award amount $2,427,633

Location Ames, IA

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders Growers Edge, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Meridian Institute, Midwest Row Crop Collaborative and Practical Farmers of Iowa

Grantee Institution Practical Farmers of Iowa

Nitrogen is critical to plant growth and yields. Soil health practices can increase nitrogen availability, but farmers cannot determine by how much, so they apply additional, synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, which is costly, contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and can negatively impact land and water ecosystems. This research is quantifying how adopting soil health practices can reduce the need for nitrogen inputs without sacrificing yield. Farmers need this scientifically sound economic information to make the best decisions for their land.

Fecal Microbiota Transplant to Reduce Post Weaning Diarrhea & Antibiotic Use

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $311,354

Location Lafayette, IN

Matching Funders Purdue University and National Pork Board

This research is investigating using fecal microbiota, or stool, transplants to reduce post-weaning diarrhea and antibiotic use in swine. Post-weaning diarrhea is caused when bacteria invade the gut, which becomes weakened from the diet change, transportation and change in environment that occurs during weaning. Researchers are administering the fecal transplants though a feed amendment with freeze-dried fecal microbiota, a less labor-intensive method than traditional oral gavage and better suited for commercial settings. If effective, the results could be optimized for other animal species like poultry and cattle and be developed into proprietary feed additive-type technologies by the animal health industry.

Risk Factors for Lameness in Finishing Pigs

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $268,493

Location Philadelphia, PA

Matching Funders University of Pennsylvania and PIC

Mycoplasma hyosynoviae (M. hyosynoviae) bacteria cause respiratory disease and lameness in pigs, contributing to economic loss and decreased animal welfare, and is a major driver of antibiotic use in swine production. Little is known about the incidence and causes of lameness in swine. This research is identifying factors that cause swine lameness to determine whether management factors like floor type, pen size and nutrition underlie common lameness problems. If lameness is caused by non-bacterial factors like M. hyosynoviae, alternative methods of prevention can be identified, reducing antibiotic usage.

Improving the Efficacy of Vaccination Against Mycoplasma Hyosynoviae by Identifying Optimal Application Times

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $359,618

Location St. Paul, MN

Matching Funders Newport Laboratories, Tyson Foods, Pipestone Veterinary Services, Regents of the University of Minnesota and Boehringer Ingelheim

Mycoplasma hyosynoviae (M. hyosynoviae) bacteria cause respiratory disease and lameness in pigs, contributing to economic loss and decreased animal welfare, and is a major driver of antibiotic use in swine production. This research identifies the optimal time for vaccine application against M. hyosynoviae in swine, which will result in significant prevention of lameness development in grow-finish swine and translate into reduced use of antibiotics for disease control.

Antimicrobial Use Monitoring & Benchmarking in U.S. Feedyards

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $400,022

Location Manhattan, KS

Matching Funders Kansas State University

This research will develop a sustainable, practical system for individual beef producers to evaluate and report their antimicrobial usage in context of others across the beef feedlot industry. Results of this research can potentially impact how corporations and regulatory agencies formulate policies on antimicrobial use in beef cattle.

Pathogen-Host Interaction During the Development of Liver Abscesses; Local & Systemic Immune & Metabolic Responses During Fusobacterium Necrophorum Challenges

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $195,140

Location Lubbock TX

Matching Funders Texas Tech University

The exact cause of liver abscesses is unknown. However, once they are formed, they are highly susceptible to the Fusobacterium necrophorum (F. necrophorum) bacterium, resulting in major economic loss to producers due to impaired cattle performance and lower carcass value. This research investigates how feedlot beef cattle immune systems react throughout the lifecycle of F. necrophorum. It is identifying potential pathways in which the bacteria subvert the hosts’ defenses during the development of liver abscess to lay the foundation for the formation of novel approaches, such as alternative drugs, that can potentially replace antimicrobials in liver abscess control and prevention strategies.

Defining the Contribution of Acidosis to the Liver Abscess Complex Using a Novel Challenge Model to Delineate Impacts of Diet Composition & Feeding Management on Liver Abscess Pathogenesis

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $542,475

Location Canyon, TX

Matching Funders West Texas A&M University and Cactus Feeders

The exact cause of liver abscesses is unknown. However, once they are formed, they are highly susceptible to the Fusobacterium necrophorum (F. necrophorum) bacterium, resulting in major economic loss to producers due to impaired cattle performance and lower carcass value. This research aims to develop a unique, repeatable method that induces liver abscesses in feedlot cattle to further investigate the relationship between acids in the rumen and liver abscesses. The project is also developing a scoring system to evaluate rumen health, updating the current liver scoring system to characterize liver abscess prevalence and developing a benchmark between these factors for future study.

Novel Strategies to Improve the Understanding of Liver Abscess Formation in Beef Cattle

Year Awarded 2021

Total award amount $250,000

Location Lubbock, TX

Matching Funders Texas Tech University

The exact cause of liver abscesses is unknown. However, once they are formed, they are highly susceptible to the Fusobacterium necrophorum (F. necrophorum) bacterium, resulting in major economic loss to producers due to impaired cattle performance and lower carcass value. This research investigates the gastrointestinal location, concentration and movement of F. necrophorum and Salmonella enterica, as well as the other organisms that live in the intestines of feedlot cattle with liver abscesses. This first phase of Hales’ research will inform a methodology to reduce F. necrophorum through a direct-fed microbial.

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

398 Grants found

FFAR Grant Addresses Emerging Pine Needle Diseases

FFAR Grant Develops Mitigation Tactics for Cocoa Frosty Pod Rot

A multiplexed chemical sensor system to automate non-invasive, in-ovo sex determination for the poultry industry

UC Davis Receives FFAR Grant to Help Improve Vineyard Soil Health

Advancing Water Policy for Agricultural Sustainability

Accelerating Breeding Technology to Develop New Crops

Leveraging landrace genomics to rapidly engineer thermotolerant cassava

Using novel genes from wild germplasm to boost protein content in cultivated chickpea

FFAR Awards Grant to Reduce Water Waste in Crop Irrigation

Genetic and microbial determinants of nitrogen fixation in a Sierra Mixe landrace of maize

Increasing Dietary Fiber in Wheat Crop

Protecting Soil Health & Food Safety in Almond Orchards

High-throughput in-ovo sexing of chicken eggs using hyperspectral imaging & Raman spectroscopy

Project Ella

Modeling for genomic, blood & microbiological markers for liver abscesses in fed beef cattle

Understanding liver abscess pathogenesis & risk-factors of feedlot cattle reared in conventional beef versus dairy management systems

ICASA: Defining the contribution of acidosis to the liver abscess complex using novel challenge model to delineate impacts of diet composition and feeding management on liver abscess pathogenesis

Metabolomic analysis of blood plasma to identify unique biomarkers indicative of liver abscesses

Associations between feeding & management practices of beef-on-dairy cattle from birth to harvest with liver abscesses

Promoting antimicrobial stewardship through improved understanding of how feedlot cattle are classified based on BRD risk

Antimicrobial Use Monitoring & Benchmarking in U.S. Feedyards

Acoustic Monitoring to Support Mass Cattle Treatment Decisions

Developing a model protocol for tracking antibiotic use & AMR surveillance across a large-scale commercial swine production system

Comparison of a rail-mounted automated power washer to a commercial manual power washing crew in terms of cleanliness, manpower & water usage efficiency

ICASA Grant Analyzes Antimicrobial Data on Farms

An International Collaboration for Combating Fusarium Wilt in Cotton

Advancing the Design and Fabrication of Biopolymer-based Nanocomposites for Sustainable Food Packaging

Field trial of rice gene-edited rice for drought tolerance

FFAR Grant Protects Wheat Yields from Wheat Stem Sawfly

Elucidating the genetic basis for sub-tropical flowering in hemp

Breeding and Characterizing New Cultivars of Grain and Fiber Hemp

Researchers Investigate the Promise of Food Procurement

Irrigation Innovation Consortium Funds Seven Research Projects

An Integrative Approach to Biofortification of Staple Crops

FoodShot Global Challenge #1 Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Colorado)

The Impact of Nutrition and Metabolic Capacity on Honeybee Health

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

Increasing Motivation and Promoting Persistence in Farmer Conservation

FFAR Grant Develops Premium Strawberry Flavors for Indoor Growing Environments

Novel Farmer-to-Farmer Learning Approaches to Cultivate a Culture of Conservation in the Mississippi River Basin

Equipping Conservation Professionals and Farmers with Tools to Deliver Edge of Field Practices

Integrating Genomics, Milk Spectrometry & Microbial Manipulations to Mitigate Enteric Methane Emissions from Dairy Cattle

Hydrogen Production and Hydrogen Utilization in the Rumen of Beef & Dairy Cattle: Key Rumen Microbiome Measurements to Understand Mechanisms Controlling Methanogenesis & Mitigating Enteric Methane Emissions

Using sensors & psychological profile to increase compliance of wean to market barn biosecurity

Development of an effective & practical biosecurity entrance system

Self-vaccinating pigs to save labor, improve efficacy & enhance biosecurity: Mhp, IAV, Ileitis & Erysipelas evaluations

Determining the economical & epidemiological benefit of cleaning & disinfecting market haul trailers within the U.S. swine industry

Scaling Quantified and Verified Soil Health, Climate and Natural Resources Outcomes from U.S. Agriculture in an Innovative Ecosystem Services Market Program

A holistic approach to improving keel bone health of breeders and commercial layer hens

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Research: Huaijun Zhou

Using the power of functional genomics and genetics to reduce keel bone damage

Development of Novel Methanogenesis Inhibitors in Ruminants

Investigating Natural Nitro-Compounds as a Viable Strategy to Reduce Enteric Methane Emission from Ruminants

Grant Investigates Naturally Occurring Compound to Reduce Enteric Methane Emissions

Kirchner Food Fellowship HBCU 2023-2024 Cohort

Kirchner Food Fellowship Inaugural HBCU Cohort (2021-22)

FFAR Vet Fellows Fifth Cohort

FFAR Vet Fellows Fourth Cohort

FFAR Vet Fellows Third Cohort

FFAR Vet Fellows Second Cohort

FFAR Vet Fellows Inaugural Cohort

FFAR Program Aims to Catalyze Development of Underutilized Crops, India

FFAR Program Aims to Catalyze Development of Underutilized Crops, Davao del Sur, Philippines

FFAR Program Aims to Catalyze Development of Underutilized Crops, England

Food Waste Challenge, Oregon

Food Waste Challenge, Ohio

AgMission™ Funds Global Producers’ Consultation to Improve Climate-Smart Agriculture Adoption

Food Waste Challenge, Florida

Uniting Urban Agriculture Operations to Increase Food Security

Validation of Efficacy of a Protective DIVA-Compatible Prototype African Swine Fever Virus Vaccine

The Revitalization of Indigenous Crops in the Southwest

Developing circular urban food systems for a rapidly growing desert city

Big Data to Improve and Sustain Wheat End-Use Quality in the Face of Increasingly Variable Climate Scenarios

Evaluating the use of calcium silicate amendments to manage the bioavailability of organic carbon in agricultural soils

Using a novel RNA therapy to tackle dual threat of tomato spotted wilt virus, a pandemic agricultural pathogen and its supervector, thrips

Harnessing mycorrhizal-microbial synergies for agricultural resilience and health

Establish Power-to-Food by Cultivating and Processing Hydrogenotrophic Single Cells to Design New Sustainable Protein Supply Chains Without Arable Land

Food security in the Anthropocene in Islander Communities

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