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

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90 Grants found

FFAR Fellows Program 2024 Cohort

FFAR Vet Fellows Sixth Cohort

FFAR-OCP Disruptive Fertilizer Technology Fellowship First Cohort

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Kirchner Food Fellowship HBCU 2023-2024 Cohort

Kirchner Food Fellowship Inaugural HBCU Cohort (2021-22)

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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

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

The Revitalization of Indigenous Crops in the Southwest

Developing circular urban food systems for a rapidly growing desert city

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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

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

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

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Food security in the Anthropocene in Islander Communities

Next-Generation Carbon Capture for Agricultural Crop Applications

Orthogonal Nano-Engineering (ONE) for Rational Design of Food Contact Surfaces

Establishing Viable Organic Orchard Crop Systems for the Northeast U.S.

Kirchner Food Fellowship HBCU 2022-23 Cohort

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Research: David Lobell

Recycling nutrients for robust agricultural supply chains

Next-generation phenotyping and genomics for identifying, breeding, and managing more sustainable beef cattle

A Big Data Tool for Urban Tree Crop Selection Under Climate Change

Leveraging Phasic Environment and Nutrient Solution Management to Improve Resource Use Efficiency of Indoor Vertical Farming

Enabling sustainable soil and water management through microbe-powered RF soil sensing

Agroecosystem responses to climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity in the United States and Latin America

Targeted On-Demand Disease Management Practices/Therapies

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Research: Rodolphe Barrangou

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Establishing Predictive Genomics to Improve Pollinator Health

Holistic Irrigation Strategies for Climate-Smart Agriculture

Tribal Agriculture Fellowship Inaugural Cohort

Reinvigorating Soybean Yield for 21st Century Agriculture

Understanding the roots of soil health

Enhancing the sustainability of finfish aquaculture to increase production and public acceptance

Digging deeper: Removing the barriers to soil compaction mitigation

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Fermentation to unlock the potential of underutilized Indigenous plants – an integrated traditional ecological knowledge innovation toward bio- and techno-functional benefits

Improving soil health by engineering a rhizobacterium to depend on a plant and stimulate its immune system

Creating a nitrogen fixing symbiont for cereal crops

Advancing Water Policy for Agricultural Sustainability

Building our understanding of soil health practice adoption through knowledge co-production with farmers

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Research: Christina Grozinger

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Research: Zachary Lippman

Field-deployable biosensors for managing animal health

A Multi-Scale Approach to Unearth the Root of Plant Disease Resistance

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An Integrative Approach to Biofortification of Staple Crops

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

Harnessing the soil microbiome to increase soil health and plant productivity

Kirchner Food Fellowship 2020-21 Cohort

Kirchner Food Fellowship 2019-20 Cohort

Kirchner Food Fellowship 2018-19 Cohort

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Metagenomic Probes for the Rapid Identification of the Microbiome Community in A Wheat Rhizospheremodel System

A Systematic Approach to Improve Heifer Selection and the Sustainability of Beef Production.

Improving the Nutritional Quality of Tomatoes

Harnessing Multi-Trophic Chemical Ecology to Obtain Sustainable Pest Control and Improved Soil Health

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Research: Elizabeth Ainsworth

A Coupled Natural-Human System Approach to Solving Locust Plagues

Developing CRISPR-Cpf1 Genome Editing Technologies for Crop Improvement

Towards Production of Residue-Free Healthy Fruit Crops

Effects of Asymptomatic Listeriosis on Dairy Cattle Fecal Microbiota

Direct Linkage of Dietary Components with Metabolizers in the Microbiota

Harnessing Endophytes to Improve Crop Efficiency and Production

Innovations in the Food Supply Chain to Reduce Food Waste

Optimizing Water Use in Agriculture by Stacking Conservation Practices

Innovation at the Nexus of Computational, Membrane and Plant Biology

Diet, the human gastrointestinal microbiome and metabolic health

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A Novel Bioassay for Culturing and Characterizing Fastidious Phytopathogens

Using Active Organic Matter Tests to Help Predict Crop Nutrient Needs

Plant-Nanoparticle Hybrids: Optimize Crop Engineering and Nutrient Delivery

Improving Simulations of Water Dynamics and Crop Yield in the Corn Belt

Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality and health outcomes among adults

Developing Massively Parallel Sequence for Agricultural Surveillance

Advances in Water Limited Irrigation Management

Going Back to the Roots To Transform Soil Health into Yield

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Using Eye Tracking to Better Understand Food Choices

Enhancing Crop Pollination, Pest Control and Yield in Urban Agriculture

Building Soil Health Through Rotational Diversity and Soil Microorganisms

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

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $430,485

Location   Amherst, MA

Grantee Institution   University of Massacheusetts Amherst

Alternative sustainable protein supply chains not reliant on traditional agriculture are needed for future food security. This research is studying high-protein bacteria that use hydrogen as an energy source, which can be produced sustainably and using less land than traditional agriculture.

Holistic Irrigation Strategies for Climate-Smart Agriculture

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $448,339

Location   College Station, TX

Grantee Institution   Texas A&M University

Currently, agriculture decision support tools for water management are unsuitable for climate-smart agriculture because they mostly serve the single purpose of increasing crop productivity. This research is developing water management strategies that not only optimize crop productivity, but also increase carbon sequestration, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote soil health and resilience.

Tribal Agriculture Fellowship Inaugural Cohort

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $2,500,000 over five years

Location   Fayetteville, AR

Matching Funders   Farm Credit, Farmer Mac, John Deere and Native American Agriculture Fund

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and the Native American Agriculture Fund created the Tribal Agriculture Fellowship (TAF) program to create opportunities for students to advance their education in agriculture, increase specialized knowledge and promote sustainability of agriculture in Tribal communities. The TAF program selected 10 students to its inaugural cohort to advance their education and careers in an agriculture-related field. TAF is a fellowship program dedicated solely to supporting the educational and professional development of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students pursuing technical, undergraduate and graduate degrees in agriculture.

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.

Kirchner Food Fellowship Inaugural HBCU Cohort (2021-22)

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $75,000

Total award amount   $273,000

Location   Jacksonville, FL & Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders   The Kirchner Impact Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Burroughs-Wellcome Fund

The Kirchner Fellowship HBCU cohort is part of a $1 million five-year collaboration between the Kirchner Impact Foundation and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research to increase diversity within the venture capital industry by training HBCU students to become agriculture technology venture capitalists. Kirchner HBCU fellows invest capital in early-stage food and agriculture companies applying ground-breaking technologies to provide sustainable solutions to address global food challenges.

Reinvigorating Soybean Yield for 21st Century Agriculture

Year Awarded  2021

Total award amount   $450,002

Location   Ithaca, NY

Grantee Institution   Cornell University

Soybeans are an important protein source and generate billions in economic growth in the United States. However, soybean yields lag other staple crops due to knowledge gaps concerning hybrid breeding—breeding between genetically distinct parent crops. This research focuses on increasing yields through a two-pronged approach. The team is using biotechnology to introduce a male-sterility/male rescue system that prevents soybean from self-pollinating, along with CRISPR gene editing to enhance soybean floral traits that will attract bees to outcross, or cross different breeds of soybeans. This hybrid breeding system has the potential to introduce genetic diversity, potentially creating trillions of dollars in additional economic and agricultural growth.

Understanding the roots of soil health

Year Awarded  2021

Total award amount   $449,563

Location   Lexington, KY

Grantee Institution   University of Kentucky

Plant roots are highly efficient at building soil organic matter, suggesting that increasing root growth in cropping systems can improve soil health. However, there are knowledge gaps that limit our ability to take full advantage of soil health benefits that roots could provide—for example, the contributions of living roots vs. decaying root litter to soil organic matter are unclear. This research is determining how living roots and decaying litter affect soil organic matter in low and high fertility soils and evaluating cover crops as a tool to capitalize on the benefits of roots in cropping systems.

Enhancing the sustainability of finfish aquaculture to increase production and public acceptance

Year Awarded  2021

Total award amount   $450,000

Location   Pullman, WA

Grantee Institution   Washington State University

Salmon and trout farming provides high quality seafood that can meet the growing demand for protein. However, the fish farming industry struggles with fish escaping to breed in the wild and disease management challenges that restrict the industry’s growth. New genome-editing applications hold promise for improving aquaculture sustainability, yet the field is in its infancy. This research is using advanced CRISPR gene editing to produce sterile rainbow trout and develop rapid disease diagnostic tests, which could address challenges the industry currently faces.

Fermentation to unlock the potential of underutilized Indigenous plants – an integrated traditional ecological knowledge innovation toward bio- and techno-functional benefits

Year Awarded  2021

Total award amount   $449,697

Location   Bozeman, MT

Grantee Institution   Montana State University

The transition from Indigenous food systems to industrialized farming with ultra-processed food continues to threaten native habitats and the health of Indigenous people. As efforts emerge to explore underutilized crops to meet nutritional needs and to sustain local ecosystems, fermentation has uncharted potential to unlock the possibility of Indigenous crops. This research is partnering with smallholder women farmers in Senegal to examine the nutritional and culinary benefits of fermenting Indigenous crops for developing healthy school meal items.

Improving soil health by engineering a rhizobacterium to depend on a plant and stimulate its immune system

Year Awarded  2021

Total award amount   $450,000

Location   Newark, DE

Grantee Institution   University of DelawareUniversity of Deleware

Beneficial microbes in a plant’s rhizosphere—the root-soil interface—increase plant growth and soil health, but not enough is known about how microbes, plants and soil interact and how to ensure microbes do not spread outside of the target soil, which could have unintended consequences. This research is examining whether a laboratory microbe can provide long-lasting pathogen resistance to crops, while also preventing the microbe’s growth, allowing it to be contained to a specific area. This project furthers development of targeted capabilities in crops to help them survive future stresses.