Funding-USDA Announces Funding to Support Education Projects at Institutions in U.S. Territories; April 7, 2016

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Media Contact: Amanda Hils, (202) 720-3359

USDA Announces Funding to Support Education Projects at Institutions in U.S. Territories

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced the availability of $1.15 million in funding to support the Resident Instruction Grants Program for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (RIIA) program and $768,000 to support the Distance Education Grants (DEG) Program for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas. These programs focus on the creation, adaptation, and adoption of learning materials and teaching strategies to operationalize what we know about how students, both resident and distance-learning, learn through projects at institutions in these areas.

Insular areas are defined as jurisdictions of the U.S. that are not part of a federal district or one of the 50 states. The eight insular areas are: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Virgin Islands of the United States.

Grants awarded through the RIIA program will be used to:

1. Improve formal, postsecondary agricultural sciences education/instruction to ensure a competent and qualified workforce to serve the food and agricultural sciences system and meet current and future national food and agricultural science needs.
2. Improve the economic health and viability of rural communities through the development of degree programs emphasizing new and emerging employment opportunities in agriscience and agribusiness.
3. Increase the number and diversity of students who will pursue and complete a 2- or 4-year post-secondary education in the food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences, or other agriculture-related science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (i.e., having an agricultural sciences workforce representative of the Nation’s population).

Applications for RIIA are due April 7. Please see the request for applications for more information.

Grants awarded through the DEG program will be used to:

1. Acquire the equipment, instrumentation, networking capability, hardware and software, digital network technology, and infrastructure necessary to teach students and teachers about technology in the classroom.
2. Develop and enhance educational services (including faculty development) to prepare students or faculty seeking a degree or certificate that is approved by the State or a regional accrediting body recognized by the Secretary of Education.
3. Provide teacher education, library and media specialist training, and preschool and teacher aid certification to individuals who seek to acquire or enhance technology skills in order to use technology in the classroom or instructional process.
4. Implement a joint project to provide education regarding technology in the classroom with a local educational agency, community-based organization, national nonprofit organization, or business.
5. Provide leadership development to administrators, board members, and faculty of eligible institutions with institutional responsibility for technology education.

Applications for DEG are due April 7. Please see the request for applications for more information.

Since 2009, NIFA has invested in and advanced innovative and transformative initiatives to solve societal challenges and ensure the long-term viability of agriculture. NIFA’s integrated research, education, and extension programs, supporting 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, visit www.nifa.usda.gov/impacts, sign up for email updates, or follow us on Twitter @usda_NIFA, #NIFAimpacts.

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