New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award

I. Eligible Institutions

• U.S. Institutions of Higher Education
  • Public/State-controlled institutions
  • Private institutions
• U.S. Nonprofit Research Institutions
• U.S. Department of Agriculture

In keeping with FFAR goals to reach a diverse and broad range of institutions and individuals who participate in its programs, the following types of higher education institutions are highly encouraged to apply for FFAR programs:

• Hispanic-serving Institutions
• 1890s Land-Grant Institutions and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities
• Tribal Colleges and Universities
• Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
• Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions

Institutions may submit one nominee to the 2025 New Innovator Award program.

II. Eligible Individuals

Faculty members at eligible institutions with the creative ideas, skills, knowledge and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research program as principal investigator are invited to work with their institution to develop an application for support.

• The nominated faculty member must have been hired on or after August 1, 2021 for a tenure-track or equivalent position and may work in any discipline or any department within the institution.
• Preference will be given to individuals near the onset of their independent research career and who are within eight (8) years of receiving a Ph.D. or equivalent degree.
• Individuals with significant research experience prior to obtaining their faculty position will not be considered for this award. For the purpose of this funding opportunity, significant research experience is defined as a nominee that has been awarded a substantial research grant (three to five years of support) or has received project funding totaling over $1M within the time of their tenure position or has been awarded similar career development awards with similar budgetary scopes.
• This research concept must directly benefit U.S. agricultural interests.

FFAR recognizes that agriculture and food sciences are highly complex, requiring individuals from a variety of disciplines to realize the potential in each field or research area. Particularly for early-stage investigators, collaborators are often essential for success. While this award is made to an outstanding early career investigator, applicants should include information regarding any essential collaborators and include letters of support from those collaborators. In these letters, the collaborators should comment on the potential of the individual to achieve success.

• Anticipated Award Duration: Up to 36 months
• Amount per Award: Up to $150,000/year for up to three years (36 months). Matching funds are optional for this funding opportunity. However, additional matching is always encouraged to broaden the scope of the program, and, if available, should be reflected in the budget. Lack of matching funds will not influence the review of the application.
  • Indirect costs are limited to 10% of the total award, including subcontracts, if applicable. Unrecovered indirect cost is not permitted. Construction and renovation costs are not allowed. Salaries of principal investigators are allowed for time not covered by institutional or other grant funds. Effort should be commensurate with the research proposed.
• Anticipated Number of Awards: Up to twelve (12) awards. The actual number of awards will depend on the quality and budgets of successful proposals. FFAR reserves the right to negotiate all or none of the applications received for funding consideration under this opportunity.
• Anticipated Award Date: Winter 2025

Applications must be submitted by the deadline date through FFAR’s online application Grant Management System. Nominations and 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.

Nominators, please be prepared to write a letter on institutional letterhead with the nominee’s name, department, institution, title, start date of current position, date they received their Ph.D., and justification for the nomination addressing all points provided in the Application Components section.

FFAR will review nominations against eligibility criteria. Only those meeting these criteria will be invited to submit full applications. Email invitations will be sent to those eligible by February 26, 2025.

All Scientific and Grants questions must be emailed to grants@foundationfar.org.

FFAR only accepts scientific, programmatic and grants inquiries by email. We strive to respond to inquiries within two business days, but our response time depends on the volume of questions FFAR receives and the complexity of the questions asked. Please note that we do not monitor this mailbox on evenings, weekends or federal holidays.