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NIFA Announces $5 Million in Funding for Food, Energy,
and Water Systems Research
Media
Contact: Sally Gifford, 202-720-2047
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13,
2016 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of
Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced the availability of up to
$5 million in funding for research to better understand how food,
energy and water systems interact, and how they can be sustained. This
funding is made available through Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water
Systems (INFEWS),
a federal research partnership between NIFA and the National Science
Foundation (NSF).
“Our food, energy
and water systems are taxed by numerous challenges, from climate change
to food waste, to disconnected policies on food management, water
planning and energy production,” said NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy. “The solution to these problems starts
with research partnerships that will lead to better technologies,
policies and public education.”
INFEWS grants fund
scientific investigation into these complex systems and how society can
better prepare for the future. NSF and NIFA encourage international
collaborative research involving scientists and engineers from a range
of disciplines and organizations to solve the significant global
challenges at the nexus of these complex and interdependent
systems.
The INFEWS
initiative seeks to:
- Advance our understanding of the
food-energy-water system through quantitative, predictive and
computational modeling, including support for relevant
cyberinfrastructure,
- Develop real-time, cyber-enabled interfaces
that improve understanding of the behavior of food-energy-water
systems and increase decision support capability, and
- Enable research that will lead to innovative
solutions to critical food-energy-water systems problems.
The deadline for
INFEWS applications is March 6, 2017.
Eligible applicants
for the NIFA contribution to the program include State agricultural
experiment stations; colleges, universities and university research
foundations, federal agencies, national laboratories, and other
research organizations. See the request for applications for details.
Since 2009, USDA has
invested $19 billion in research both intramural and extramural. During
that time, research conducted by USDA scientists has resulted in 883
patent applications filed, 405 patents issued and 1,151 new inventions
disclosures covering a wide range of topics and discoveries. To learn
more about how USDA supports cutting edge science and innovation, visit
the USDA Medium chapter Food and Ag Science Will Shape Our Future.
NIFA invests in and
advances innovative and transformative research, education and
extension to solve societal challenges and ensure the long-term
viability of agriculture. NIFA support for the best and brightest
scientists and extension personnel have resulted in user-inspired,
groundbreaking discoveries that are combating childhood obesity,
improving and sustaining rural economic growth, addressing water
availability issues, increasing food production, finding new sources of
energy, mitigating climate variability and ensuring food safety.
To learn more about
NIFA’s impact on agricultural science, visitwww.nifa.usda.gov/impacts, sign up for email updates or follow us on Twitter @usda_NIFA,#NIFAimpacts.
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research,
education, and extension, and seeks to make transformative discoveries
that solve societal challenges.
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