Grants Archive

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

Scalable breeding for plant growth to address the challenges of climate change

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $796,878

Total award amount $1,593,756

Location Ithaca, NY

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders BASF, Limagrain, Virginia Crop Improvement Association

Climate change is creating increasingly unstable farming environments, leading to unpredictable yields and quality. Crop breeding programs aim to develop crops that can thrive despite climate instability; however, breeding programs face their own challenges in predicting how the climate will change and how crops will respond. One specific challenge to breeding programs is the lack of information about how plant genomes and growing conditions interact, and how that interaction impacts agronomic traits such as yield. Cornell University researchers are studying how different plant genomes respond to environment conditions throughout the entire growing season, with the goal of improving crops’ climate resiliency.

Innovations in Plant Genetics to Develop Intermediate Wheatgrass as a Next-Generation Sustainable Crop

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $992,419

Total award amount $1,985,206

Location Minneapolis, MN

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders Forever Green Initiative, Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation, The Land Institute

The University of Minnesota is accelerate the development of intermediate wheatgrass, trademarked as Kernza by The Land Institute, which is a perennial plant, meaning it requires only one planting. Not only do perennial crops like Kernza reduce labor and input costs, their deep roots reduce soil erosion and trap more carbon, benefitting the environment.

FFAR Vet Fellows Second Cohort

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $10,000 per student

Location Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC)

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) announced the 11 recipients of the 2020 Veterinary Student Research Fellowships (Vet Fellows) in partnership with the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). This fellowship creates opportunities for veterinary students to pursue research on global food security and sustainable animal production.

Rethinking seafood by-product: A path to provide sustainable nutrition and improve resource utilization

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $333,777

Total award amount $667,570

Location Corvallis, OR

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Oregon State University, OSU Food Innovation Center, Pacific Seafood Group, Seafood Industry Research Fund, Trident Seafoods, West Coast Seafood Processors Association

The American food system wastes food and resources, in part because raw materials are discarded during processing. This waste, especially of protein sources, is highly problematic as an additional 148 million people may be protein deficient by 2050 due to climate change. Researchers at Oregon State University are developing high protein, nutritious and attractive food products from byproducts of the seafood industry.

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

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $748,545

Total award amount $1,497,641

Location Gainesville, FL

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders Acceligen, The Semex Alliance

Cattle, if not adapted to heat, can exhibit an extreme physical reaction to heat stress, including reductions in feed intake and milk production, slowed growth and increased disease susceptibility. Acceligen researchers are examining how genetic alterations can improve heat resistance in cattle. By introducing naturally occurring gene variations into breeds of cattle that are not adapted to heat, researchers can better understand how to control heat stress and ultimately improve animal health, well-being, fertility and economic return for producers.

Genome Editing Wheat for Durable & Sustainable Disease Resistance

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $900,000

Total award amount $3,272,723

Location Berkeley, CA

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders 2Blades Foundation, Innovative Genomics Institute

To control plant epidemics by breeding plants for disease resistance, scientists use traditional crop breeding to introduce, or stack, multiple resistance genes – though this is a time-consuming approach and pathogens evolve to overcome resistance. University of California, Berkeley researchers are using gene editing technology to stack resistance genes in the wheat crops that specifically recognize the pathogen’s proteins. By recognizing the pathogen’s proteins, the plant can fight the pathogen, even if the pathogen mutates.

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

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $99,230

Total award amount $99,230

Location Flint, MI

Program Tipping Points

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to the Michigan State University research team investigating how emergency food programs, including food banks, schools and Meals on Wheels, intersect with the retail sector.

Modeling the Future of Food in Your Neighborhood

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $100,000

Total award amount $100,000

Location Cleveland, OH

Program Tipping Points

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine research team to model the effects of COVID-19 in neighborhoods with high, medium and low food security before March 2020. Their findings will be used to tailor food system solutions to diverse neighborhood contexts.

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

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $83,356

Total award amount $83,356

Location Austin, TX

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to FRESH Austin to examine the impact of the pandemic on access to fresh, nutritious food in the Austin area.

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

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $19,468

Total award amount $19,468

Location State College, PA

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

Weeds, pests and diseases often devastate soil health, impact environmental health and threaten global food security. In partnership with the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), we awarded a grant to Pennsylvania State University researchers examine how to promote and conserve the beneficial soil fungus, Metarhizium robertsii. This fungus can increase plant growth and tolerance to environmental stresses, which are expected to increase with climate change.

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

397 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.