International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture (ICASA) 2026 RFA

Beef sector priorities:

1. Advance immune response to infectious diseases that may include but are not limited to:
   • Vaccination
   • Immune modulators
   • Targeted-use of antibiotics
2. Examine genomic strategies for disease that may include, but are not limited to:
• Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD)
• Heart failure
3. Examine production and management systems across cow-calf, dairy, calf ranch, backgrounder, feedyard and/or packer/processor sectors to advance:
• Reduced liver abscess incidence
• Health and welfare in beef x dairy systems, including mitigation of disease
• Cull dairy or beef cow management practices

Swine sector priorities:

1. Advance the National Pork Board National Swine Health Strategy initiatives by addressing research gaps in antimicrobial stewardship to reduce the impact of domestic diseases, that may include but are not limited to controlling and/or reducing:
• Enteric bacterial pathogens
• Disease prevalence driving antibiotic use
2. Characterize antibiotic use in the U.S. swine herd
3. Develop and evaluate strategies to improve adoption of antimicrobial stewardship practices across stakeholders

Cross-cutting priorities:

1. Examine system-level drivers of antimicrobial stewardship across animal agriculture, including:
• Human behavior, decision-making processes and implementation practices, with an interest in root cause analysis of drivers of antimicrobial use
• Production system dynamics’ impact on animal health and welfare across management systems (e.g. implications of maternal stress on disease prevalence throughout production phases)
• Innovative or retrofitted housing systems that impact animal health and welfare
• One Health evaluation of environmental release and waste pathways and their impact on disease transmission and/or antimicrobial resistance
• Technology solutions to build consumer trust and maintain production efficiency through improved measurement, transparency and/or traceability of farm-level data, particularly through the application of machine learning-driven approaches

Projects may request ICASA funds of USD $100,000 – $500,000 per proposed project. There is no maximum on the amount of matching funds that may be included in the total budget.Projects with durations of 18 to 36 months in length are eligible for funding. Project start dates range from May to October 2027. Successful projects will receive annual disbursements contingent upon meeting reporting requirements (see Section VIII).

Key budget considerations are noted below, and additional budgetary guidelines can be found on FFAR’s website. Applicants are encouraged to contact FFAR’s Grants Team to discuss any concerns.

Matching funds are required for this funding opportunity.

• Applicants must provide matching funds equal to at least 40% of the total project budget (e.g., for a total project budget of $750,000, matching funds of at least $300,000 are required for a $450,000 request of ICASA funds).
• Matching funds must meet FFAR’s Matching Funds Guidelines, noting that they cannot be from a U.S. federal government entity.
• No more than 50% of the required match may be in-kind contributions.
• Funds already committed as a match or dedicated to another project cannot be offered as a match. Matching funds must correspond to project costs in the budget justification.
• Applications that demonstrate strong partnerships by matching from external sources outside the applicant institutions are encouraged. These partners may include but are not limited to the private sector, nonprofits, commodity and trade groups, state governments and others that do not traditionally work in agriculture.

FFAR welcomes applications from all domestic and international higher education institutions, nonprofit and for-profit organizations and government-affiliated research agencies. Multiple applications from the same institution are allowed.

Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge and resources necessary to perform the proposed research as Principal Investigator(s) may apply through their home institution ororganization. A documented funding risk assessment will be conducted before any potential award can be made to selected Startups.

To be eligible, the proposed research must be relevant to the U.S. beef or swine industries.

All applications must be submitted by the deadline date through FFAR’s online application Grant Management System. Applications submitted outside of this System will not be considered. If you already have an account, you may start a new application. If you are a new user, register for an account by clicking the “Create Account” button located under the Sign In button on the bottom right side of the page.

Once you log in, you may begin working on your application. Please be sure to save your work often. To access a saved application, please do so through your Grant Management Account.

To be fair to all our applicants, FFAR will not grant extensions to applicants who missed the deadlines posted in the Key Dates section.

For questions related to the online submission system, please contact FFAR’s Grants Management team at grants@foundationfar.org. FFAR’s Grants Office Hours are held the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 12 p.m. EDT. Registration for office hours can be done on FFAR’s website.

For questions related to the Scientific Program, please contact Dr. Miriam Martin LeValley at icasa@foundationfar.org.

FFAR strives to respond to inquiries within two business days, but our response time depends on the volume of questions received and the complexity of the questions asked. Please note that we do not monitor mailboxes on evenings, weekends or federal holidays.