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

Refine Results
Priority Areas
Consortia
Program
Country
    See more
Location
    See more
Year
    See more
Order

90 Grants found

Hide map

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.

FFAR Grant Examines Management Practices Effect on Soil Health

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $9,500,000

Total award amount   $19,000,000

Location   Myrtle Beach, SC

Matching Funders   Noble Research Institute, Greenacres Foundation, The Jones Family Foundation, ButcherBox

Grantee Institution   Noble Research Institute

An international coalition announced a $19 million research project aimed at understanding how a farmer or ranchers’ grazing management decisions impacts soil health on pasture and rangeland (commonly called grazing lands) and – in turn – how soil health can positively impact a producer’s land and well-being.

FoodShot Global Challenge #2 Precision Protein, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Netherlands)

Year Awarded  2021

Total award amount   $150,000

Location   Wageningen, Netherlands

Program   FoodShot Global Challenge

Matching Funders   FoodShot Global

Grantee Institution   Wageningen University

FoodShot Global’s GroundBreaker Prize recognizes rising scientific stars whose research has identified technological and ecological tools that enable farmers to optimize yields and the long-term health of the land. Dr. Hannah Van Zanten, Associate Professor in Farming Systems Ecology at Wageningen University, received $150,000 for developing a European circular food systems model (CiFoS), which is now extending to a global model.

FoodShot Global Challenge #2 Precision Protein, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (South Carolina)

Year Awarded  2021

Total award amount   $200,000

Location   Clemson, SC

Program   FoodShot Global Challenge

Matching Funders   FoodShot Global

Grantee Institution   Clemson University

FoodShot Global’s GroundBreaker Prize recognizes rising scientific stars whose research has identified technological and ecological tools that enable farmers to optimize yields and the long-term health of the land. Dr. Dil Thavarjah, Associate Professor of Pulse Quality and Nutrition and Clemson University School of Health Faculty Research Scholar at Clemson University, received a $200,000 for developing an integrated process for organic plant protein productions from the field to isolation.

FFAR and OFRF Renew Partnership to Improve Soil Health Research

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $66,000

Total award amount   $120,000

Location   Santa Cruz, CA

Matching Funders   Organic Farming Research Foundation

Grantee Institution   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.

U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative: Improving Dairy On-Farm Sustainability through Improved Soil Health and Manure Management

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $10,000,000

Total award amount   $23,200,000

Location   Rosemont, IL

Matching Funders   Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), Newtrient and other Net Zero Initiative partners

Grantee Institution   Dairy Research Institute

Dairy farmers face increasing pressure from the private and public sectors to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This grant to the Dairy Research Institute addresses research gaps in feed production and manure-based products that support the dairy community’s Net Zero Initiative, an industry-wide effort to adopt practices and technologies that reduce GHG emissions and improve environmental health.

Irrigation Innovation Consortium Funds Seven Research Projects

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $533,126

Total award amount   $1,512,550

Location   Fort Collins, CO

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.

Grantee Institution   Colarado State University

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. 

New Crops ATLASS (Analytics Telenetwork: for Landscape, Agronomic, and Sociocultural Scalability)

Year Awarded  2021

FFAR award amount   $966,273

Total award amount   $1,939,773

Location   Salina, KS

Program   Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders   The Land Institute, The Perennial Agriculture Project

Grantee Institution   The Land Institute

Next-generation perennial grains are domesticated as nutrient-dense crops that can diversify the food supply, increase soil health and reduce irrigated water use. However, researchers do not have enough time and resources to conduct the conventional field research essential to develop reliable future seed supplies and optimize management practices. The Land Institute is implementing a civic science program to work with volunteers, farmers and land-grant extension programs to strategically collect data on cultivating next-generation perennial grains at small scales and test civic science as a method for advancing next-generation crop domestication.

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.