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

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106 Grants found

Dr. James C. Schnable Awarded 2026 NAS Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences

FFAR Fellows Program 2025 Cohort

FFAR Vet Fellows Seventh Cohort

Dr. Hans Coetzee Awarded 2025 NAS Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences

Building Agroecosystem Soil Health to Adapt to Climate and Regulatory Realities while Protecting Rural Community Health

Leveraging multi-scale datasets and modeling tools for improved soil health and carbon management

Next-generation Sustainable Weed Management Enabled by Micro-targeted Legged Robots

Exploring Novel Promoter Alleles for Multiple Vitamin Biofortification Using a Calli-Derived Somatic Embryo Platform

Electrochemically Assisted Biological Nitrogen Fixation for Distributed & Sustainable Fertilizer Production

Understanding Plant Parasitic Nematode Virulence Mechanisms: A Valuable Approach to Expedite Breeding Durable & Broad-spectrum Crop Resistance

Novel Biobased Antiviral Treatments for Bee Pollinator Health

Developing Multifunctional & Durable Agro-based Food Packaging to Reduce Toxic Plastic Waste & Sustainably Advance a Bioeconomy

Water & Soil Sustainability for Nutritious Rice Production

Perennial Grain Staple Foods Program

FFAR Fellows Program 2024 Cohort

Major enhancement of U.S. swine industry preparedness and responses to large-scale infectious foreign animal diseases through harmonizing biosecurity plans and advancing interpretable machine learning

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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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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

Towards Production of Residue-Free Healthy Fruit Crops

Optimizing Water Use in Agriculture by Stacking Conservation Practices

Innovations in the Food Supply Chain to Reduce Food Waste

Harnessing Endophytes to Improve Crop Efficiency and Production

Direct Linkage of Dietary Components with Metabolizers in the Microbiota

Effects of Asymptomatic Listeriosis on Dairy Cattle Fecal Microbiota

Developing CRISPR-Cpf1 Genome Editing Technologies for Crop Improvement

A Coupled Natural-Human System Approach to Solving Locust Plagues

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

Innovation at the Nexus of Computational, Membrane and Plant Biology

Diet, the human gastrointestinal microbiome and metabolic health

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Developing Massively Parallel Sequence for Agricultural Surveillance

A Novel Bioassay for Culturing and Characterizing Fastidious Phytopathogens

Using Eye Tracking to Better Understand Food Choices

Going Back to the Roots To Transform Soil Health into Yield

Advances in Water Limited Irrigation Management

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Enhancing Crop Pollination, Pest Control and Yield in Urban Agriculture

Building Soil Health Through Rotational Diversity and Soil Microorganisms

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Harnessing the soil microbiome to increase soil health and plant productivity 

Year Awarded  2020

Total award amount   $450,000

Location   Seaside, CA

Grantee Institution   California State University, Monterey Bay

Soil-borne diseases pose a significant threat to global food production, causing catastrophic yield and economic losses. Dr. Jose Pablo (JP) Dundore-Arias’ research is determining the ecological and molecular mechanisms responsible for inducing and maintaining disease-suppressive soils. Dundore-Arias is using this information to develop microbial communities capable of enhancing soil health and plant productivity.

Award Winner

FFAR Fellows Program 2020 Cohort 

Year Awarded  2020

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 2020-21 Cohort 

Year Awarded  2020

Location   Birmingham, AL & Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders   Kirchner Impact Foundation and the Kirchner Group

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.

FFAR Vet Fellows Inaugural Cohort 

Year Awarded  2019

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 10 recipients of the 2019 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.

FFAR Fellows Program 2019 Cohort 

Year Awarded  2019

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 2019-20 Cohort 

Year Awarded  2019

Location   Birmingham, AL & Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders   Kirchner Impact Foundation, North Carolina State University and the Kirchner Group

The Kirchner Food Fellowship, an initiative of the Kirchner Impact Foundation, is a program supporting young agriculture financiers. This cohort represents the second year of successful collaboration between the Kirchner Impact Foundation, the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and North Carolina State University to prepare the fellows to make critical agriculture business investment decisions.

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

Year Awarded  2019

FFAR award amount   $120,000

Total award amount   $240,000

Location   Stillwater, OK

Matching Funders   Oklahoma State University

Grantee Institution   Oklahoma State University

Plant pathogens can harm plants, reduce water quality and cause soil erosion. Oklahoma State University researchers are using high-throughput sequencing to determine what affects plant health.

Award Winner

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

Year Awarded  2019

FFAR award amount   $297,907

Total award amount   $599,310

Location   Auburn, AL

Matching Funders   Auburn University, Swiss National Science Foundation, University of Georgia, California State Beekeepers’ Association

Grantee Institution   Auburn University

Cattle infertility causes significant loss for cattle producers. Auburn University researchers are improving the efficiency of cattle production by identifying molecular markers that indicate reproductive potential. This research can help producers select cattle with the best reproductive capabilities.

Award Winner

Improving the Nutritional Quality of Tomatoes 

Year Awarded  2019

FFAR award amount   $299,042

Total award amount   $598,908

Location   Columbus, OH

Matching Funders   The Ohio State University

Grantee Institution   Ohio State University

Diet is the leading cause of many chronic diseases. The Ohio State University research team is combining plant breeding/genetics, analytical chemistry, bioinformatics and nutrition to develop tomatoes that are more beneficial for human health.

Award Winner

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

Year Awarded  2019

FFAR award amount   $300,000

Total award amount   $600,000

Location   State College, PA

Matching Funders   Pennsylvania State University, University of California (UC), Davis Department of Entomology, Almond Board of California, Hedgerow Farms, UC Davis Student Research Farm, UC Davis Saratoga Research Endowment, IF LLC, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, Sola Bee Farms, Henry’s Bullfrog Bees, Steve Godlin, Regents of the University of Minnesota, Dickinson College

Grantee Institution   Penn State University

Pests and pathogens destroy food crops, causing significant losses to farmers and threatening food security. The Pennsylvania State University research team is discovering mechanisms and management practices that manage interactions between cover crops, soil dynamics and beneficial organisms to increase crop resistance to pests and pathogens.

Award Winner