FFAR
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Open Opportunity
Program Contact:
Ms. Nikki Dutta ndutta@foundationfar.org Grants Management Team grants@foundationfar.org
This opportunity is now closed
The Layer Hen Keel Bone Health Research Program is a new collaborative program of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and Open Philanthropy that supports research to improve welfare in commercial laying hens. This Program will bring together public and private sector scientists to better understand animal physiology, housing design, economic trade-offs and other issues and create positive changes in layer hen welfare.
Keel bone damage (KBD) is a deviation or fracture of a hen’s breastbone. KBD in layer hens is both painful and decreases egg production, presenting challenges for global egg producers.
The Layer Hen Keel Bone Health program seeks research related to the following topic areas: rearing practices; genetics; nutrition, feed and physiology; early detection or prediction of KBD in commercial settings; economic analyses that evaluate time, effort or equipment trade-offs to reduce KBD; and efforts to measure the impact of research and education activities. Research through this program must be scalable and focused on solutions for larger scale, commercial facilities.
FFAR and Open Philanthropy are each providing $3 million for the Layer Hen Keel Bone Health program for a total $6 million in research funding. The program anticipates awarding between two and three grants with a $3 million maximum grant available for each awardee. Applicants may secure additional funding but are not required to do so.
The Layer Hen Keel Bone Health program welcomes applications from all domestic and international higher education institutions, nonprofit and for-profit organizations as well as government-affiliated research agencies.
All proposals will be screened for relevance, accuracy, completeness, and compliance with the guidelines stated in this RFA. Pre-proposal applications must demonstrate the potential to meet the evaluation criteria. Full proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:
Impacts and Outcomes (35%)
Partnerships (35%)
Technical Merit and Feasibility (20%)
Novelty, Innovation, and Originality (10%)
LOIs and invited full proposals 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.
To start a new application, please click here. If you are a new user, register for an account by clicking “Create Account” button located under the email address field on the left side of the home page. Once you log in, you may begin working on your application. Please be sure to save your work often by clicking on “Save and Finish Later.” To access a saved application, please do so through your Grant Management Account.
Only LOIs and invited full proposals submitted by the deadline through FFAR’s Grant Management System will be accepted and considered eligible for evaluation. To be fair to all applicants, FFAR will not grant extensions to applicants who missed the deadlines posted in the Key Dates section.
Only applications submitted by the deadline through FFAR’s Grant Management System will be accepted and considered eligible for evaluation. To be fair to all our applicants, FFAR will not grant extensions to applicants who missed the deadlines posted in the Key Dates section.
Applicants must submit the LOI using FFAR’S Grant Management System. All information provided will be treated as confidential. The most innovative and cutting-edge projects with significant potential for advancing FFAR’s mission will be invited to submit a full application. Applicants must submit an LOI to be invited to submit a full application.
Only applicants with an approved LOI will be provided with an invitation to submit a full application.
Failure to provide these attachments will result in the application’s disqualification.
For questions related to the online submission system, please contact FFAR’s Grant Management team at grants@foundationfar.org.
For questions related to the Layer Hen Keel Bone Health Program, please email (tkurt@foundationfar.org). We only accept scientific or programmatic and grants inquiries by email.
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.
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