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

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70 Grants found

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

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $642,202

Total award amount   $14,000,000

Location   Ithaca, NY

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   New York Farm Viability Institute, Elanco

Grantee Institution   Cornell University

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.

Sustainable Production of High-Performance Feed Supplements

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $653,035

Total award amount   $1,410,000

Location   St. Paul, MN

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   Launch Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, private equity financing and Sasya, Inc.

Grantee Institution   University of Minnesota

As consumer demand for animal protein increases, meat producers are under tremendous pressure to increase productivity, while maintaining profitability. As a result, many producers rely on feed supplements to encourage faster growth, reduce disease and improve feed efficiency. This Seeding Solutions grant awarded to Sasya, Inc. supports the development of sustainable, cost-effective, multi-species feed supplements that are safe for livestock, the environment and human consumption.

FFAR Grant to Develop Vaccine for Tilapia Lake Virus

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $790,326

Total award amount   $1,830,312

Location   Gainesville, FL

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   Curtiss Healthcare

Grantee Institution   University of Florida

Tilapia provides protein for billions of people each year. These fish are under threat from tilapia lake virus, a highly contagious virus that causes high mortality rates among tilapia and poses a global threat to food security. University of Florida researchers are developing a vaccine delivery system that will prevent the spread of tilapia lake virus and other diseases in the aquaculture industry.

FFAR & Rodale Institute Enhance Soil Health to Increase Crop Nutrients

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $997,455

Total award amount   $2,001,761

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   Dickinson College Farm, Iowa State University, L&M Farms, Lakeview Organic Grain, the Pennsylvania State University, Quinn Farm & Ranch Rodale Institute, Stroud Water Research Center, the University of Delaware, and West Virginia University

Grantee Institution   Rodale Institute

Despite greater production of whole foods like grains, beans, nuts and vegetables, the average diet may be nutritionally deficient. Developing agricultural practices that improve the quality of soil and increase the availability of nutrients in crops is essential to ultimately enhancing human health.

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

Grantee Institution   Cornell University

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

Grantee Institution   University of Minnesota

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.

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

Grantee Institution   Oregon State University

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.

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

Grantee Institution   University of California Berkely

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.

Accelerated Development of Crops of the Future

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $748,549

Total award amount   $1,497,098

Location   Ames, IA

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   Iowa State University, KWS SAAT SE & Co, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, BASF, SAATEN-UNION BIOTEC and RAGT

Grantee Institution   Iowa State University

On average, it takes farmers ten years to produce a new crop. With an increasing global population, there is high demand for more crops sooner. Iowa State University researchers are developing breeding methods that accelerate plant breeding for multiple crop species. These breeding techniques deliver improved crop varieties – with greater yields – into the hands of farmers sooner.

FFAR Grant Quantifies Organic Carbon to Improve Agricultural Productivity

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $1,000,000

Total award amount   $2,070,000

Location   Urbana-Champaign, IL

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   University of Illinois , the University of Minnesota and Ag Air Imaging, LLC

Grantee Institution   University of Illinois, University of Minnesota

While also providing environmental benefits, carbon retention in the soil is critical for effective water retention, nutrient absorption and root development. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a $1 million grant to the University of Illinois and the University of Minnesota to develop an integrated technique to monitor soil organic carbon, a measurable component of soil organic matter, in the U.S. Corn Belt.