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Strengthening the Scientific Workforce

Our Scientific Workforce programs continue our longstanding commitment to address critical scientific workforce shortages.
Our Scientific Workforce programs continue our longstanding commitment to address critical scientific workforce shortages.

Program Contact:

Dr. LaKisha Odom
lodom@foundationfar.org


Open Opportunities

View all opportunities

Prioritizing the Scientific Workforce

Addressing the accelerating and unprecedented global challenges faced by the U.S. food and agriculture system requires a dynamic and highly skilled scientific workforce. Developing a workforce with various experiences and perspectives is critical to driving innovation, fostering creative solutions and leading pioneering science.

Commitment to Achieving Critical Impacts

Exploring Adjacent Talent Pools 

Exploring opportunities to expand the food and agriculture workforce by attracting relevant talent from adjacent and non-traditional disciplines. 

Attracting New Talent 

Identifying gaps in the agricultural scientific workforce and developing strategies for attracting new food and agriculture researchers. 

Retaining Existing Talent 

Incentivizing career-long engagement in food and agriculture research.  

Our scientific workforce programs fill gaps in research, and prepare scientists for a range of potential career paths.

FFAR Fellows Program

The FFAR Fellows Program provides graduate students with professional development, research training and mentorship to advance their careers.

FFAR-OCP Disruptive Fertilizer Technology Fellows Program

This competitive fellowship aims to spur and foster disruptive innovation in the next generation of fertilizer research and development through a research challenge, whereby emerging young scientists in agriculture research can enhance their efforts in fertilizer efficiency research and technology development.

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences

The NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences recognizes a mid-career scientist making an extraordinary contribution to food and agriculture research.

Nature-Based Future Challenges

Nature-based solutions leverage the functions of nature to develop solutions that address environmental and public health challenges.

New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award

The New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award provides early investment to launch young faculty into successful scientific careers.

Veterinary Student Research Fellowship

The Vet Fellows is a yearlong fellowship for veterinary students to pursue research on food security and animal production.

Kirchner Fellowship Programs

The Kirchner Fellowship trains university students each year to evaluate agriculture business investments and gives them discretion over investment decisions for companies solving critical food and agriculture challenges.
Program Closed

Tribal Agriculture Fellowship

The Tribal Agriculture Fellowship supports students pursuing technical, undergraduate and graduate degrees in agriculture and help preserve and promote the legacy of agriculture in local communities.
Program Closed

Scientific Workforce Awarded Grants

FFAR Fellows Program 2025 Cohort

Year Awarded  2025

Location   Raleigh, NC

Matching Funders   North Carolina State University

Grantee Institution   North Carolina State University

FFAR Vet Fellows Seventh Cohort

Year Awarded  2025

Total award amount   $16,000 per student

Location   Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders   American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC)

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

Year Awarded  2024

FFAR award amount   $439,701

Total award amount   $439,698

Location   Santa Cruz, CA

Grantee Institution   University of California, Santa Cruz

See all Scientific Workforce grants

The Latest

Insights

Our Insights highlight unique perspectives from across the food and agriculture community.

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Making Feed Safer for Livestock 

Theo Newbold

FFAR Fellow, Penn State University

Empowering a Sustainable Future 

Hamid Syed

FFAR Fellow, Auburn University

It’s Not Just A Trend 

Maria Rottersman

FFAR Fellow, UC Davis

The Importance of Healthy Indigenous Food Systems & How to Improve Them  

Portrait of Michael Johnson.

Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson

Assistant Professor - Indigenous ResiliencySchool of Natural Resources & the Environment Indigenous Reliance CenterUniversity of Arizona 

Healthy, Productive & Environmentally Friendly, Southeastern Beef Calves 

Federico Tarnonsky

FFAR Fellow (2022-2025), University of Florida

Kirchner HBCU Fellowship & Career Success 

Kwame Terra

Kwame Terra MPH

Kirchner Fellowship HBCU 2021 Cohort

Agriculture in the Technology Venture Capital Industry 

Portrait of LaKisha Odom.

LaKisha Odom, Ph.D.

Scientific Program Director Sustaining Vibrant Agroecosystems

Protecting the Vidalia Onion 

Portrait of Padel in an onion field.

Sujan Paudel

FFAR Fellow

Diversifying the Future of Venture Capital 

The first cohort of the HBCU Kirchner Fellows are Bryana Pittman, Kwame Jackson and Martin Adu-Boahene who co-wrote this Insights piece to share the value of this fellowship and its potential impact.

A day on the Battlefield 

Portrait of Kelsey Peterson.

Kelsey Peterson

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Taking Science Beyond the Bench 

Portrait of Krista Marshall.

Krista Marshall

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Soil is Not Dirt 

Portrait of Prairie.

Aaron Prairie

2020-2023 FFAR Fellow

Heavy Metal and Chocolate 

Portrait of Zachary Dashner.

Zachary Dashner

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Seeding a Resilient Wheat Microbiome 

Portrait of Lindsey Becker.

Lindsey Becker

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Systems Thinking for Sustainable Manure Management 

Portrait of Allison Deviney.

Alison Deviney

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

Fine-tuning photosynthesis 

Portrait of Dhruv Patel smiling.

Dhruv Patel

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Do Cows Count Their Steps? 

Portrait of Miriam Martin.

Miriam Martin

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Trait Selection, the Human Microbiome and Health 

Portrait of Nate Korth.

Nate Korth

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Milking It for all It’s Worth 

Portrait of Linda Beckett.

Linda Beckett

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

Dairy Farming: Beating the Heat 

Portrait of Ananda Fontoura smiling.

Ananda Fontoura

2018-2021 FFAR Fellow

News

The latest news and updates from FFAR.

See all News

Common Sheep & Goat Deworming Treatment Is Largely Ineffective 

FFAR Spurs Tool to Test for Bird Flu 

FFAR and North Carolina State University Announce 2025 FFAR Fellows 

FFAR Announces New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Awardees 

FFAR Names Seventh Cohort of Veterinary Fellows 

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

FFAR & AAVMC Open Applications for 2025 FFAR Vet Fellows 

FFAR & OCP North America Announce Fertilizer Fellowship Awardees & Grant Opportunity 

USDA and FFAR Announce Innovation Challenge Projects Aimed at Catalyzing Transformative Research Solutions 

FFAR and North Carolina State Announce 2024 FFAR Fellows 

FFAR Names Sixth Cohort of Veterinary Fellows 

Student Teams Combat Climate Change 

FFAR Announces New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Awardees 

FFAR & AAVMC Open Applications for 2024 FFAR Vet Fellows 

Dr. Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra Awarded the 2024 NAS Prize in Food & Agriculture Sciences 

FFAR Seeks Nominations for 2024 New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award 

FFAR and North Carolina State University Announce 2023 FFAR Fellows 

Kirchner Fellowship HBCU 2023-24 Cohort Announced 

FFAR Awards Fifth Cohort of Vet Fellows 

FFAR & OCP North America Announce Fertilizer Fellowship Awardees & 2023 Opportunities 

Breakthroughs

Tools, technologies and strategies from the research we fund.

See all Breakthroughs

Safeguarding the Future of Mid-Atlantic Viticulture 

Breakthrough for Developing Novel Strategies for Improved Control and Sustainability of Grapevine Bunch Rot Management

Developing Functional Ice to Keep Food Fresher, Longer 

Breakthrough for Innovations in the Food Supply Chain to Reduce Food Waste

Common Sheep & Goat Deworming Treatment Largely Ineffective 

Breakthrough for FFAR Vet Fellows Fifth Cohort

FFAR Spurs Tool to Test Bird Flu 

Breakthrough for Field-deployable biosensors for managing animal health

Loyalty Shopper Card Intervention Creates Behavior Change 

Breakthrough for Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality and health outcomes among adults

Developing an Extensive Database of US Groundwater Wells 

Breakthrough for Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Management Through Innovative Governance & Optimal Agricultural Water Use Under Conflicting Objectives

Getting to the Root of the Problem: Fastidious Pathogens 

Breakthrough for A Novel Bioassay for Culturing and Characterizing Fastidious Phytopathogens

Want to do more to support our pioneering research?