Information-National
Institute of Food and Agriculture - Centers of Excellence (NIFA) FR Notice;
July 31, 2014
Below is an advanced notice to the Federal Register soliciting
stakeholder input on the Centers of Excellence provision in the Research title
(Sec. 7214). Part of the stakeholder input will be through a series of
listening sessions. Dates and times are in the solicitation. This
notice is expected to be published on Tuesday. Land Grants and the research
community in your state would likely be interested in this.
Agriculture’s (NIFA) strategy to successfully implement Section
7214 of P.L. 113-79, the Agricultural Act of 2014, NIFA
is soliciting stakeholder input on how it will provide priority to Centers of
Excellence in the receipt of funding from its competitive research or extension
grant programs. NIFA will be holding web-based listening sessions in order to
solicit stakeholder input on this new challenge area.
The
focus of the web-based listening sessions will be to gather stakeholder input
that will be used in developing a process for consistently providing priority
consideration to these Centers of Excellence. NIFA is particularly interested
in input on how best to define the scope of a Center of Excellence, whether
there are models being used by other federal agencies that might be useful to
examine,
and at what point in the review/selection process “priority” should be given to
applications submitted by Centers of Excellence.
All comments must be received by close of business on July 31, 2014, to be
considered in the initial drafting of the FY 2015 process for priority
consideration of the Centers of Excellence.
Fax:
202-690-0289.
Mail: Paper, disk or CD-ROM submissions should be submitted to Centers of
Excellence; Centers of Excellence-Office of the Administrator, National
Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, STOP 2201, 1400
Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-2201.
Hand
Delivery/Courier: Centers of Excellence-Office of the Administrator, National
Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Room 4248,
Waterfront Centre, 800 9th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024.
Instructions:
All submissions received must include the agency name and reference to
NIFA-2014-[ADD IDENTIFIER]. All comments received will be posted to http://www.regulations.gov,
including any personal information provided.
Persons wishing to present oral comments during the web- based
listening session on either Thursday, July 15, or Thursday, July 31, 2014 are
requested to pre-register by contacting Ms. Valeria Best at (202) 720-8540, by
fax at (202) 690-1260 or by e-mail to vbest@nifa.usda.gov. Participants may
reserve one 5-minute comment period. More time may be available, depending on
the number of people wishing to make a presentation. Reservations will be
confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. All other participants may
provide comments during the web-based listening session if time permits, or
submit written comments. All written comments must be received by close of
business July 31, 2014, to be considered. All comments and the official
transcript of the web-based listening session, when they become available, may
be reviewed on the NIFA Web page, http://www.nifa.usda.gov, for six months.
NIFA is moving forward to implement Section 7214 of the 2014 Farm
Bill. Beginning in October of 2014, this section requires that the Agency
prioritize Centers of Excellence established for purposes of food and
agricultural research, extension, and education activities when selecting
recipients of grants from any of the Agency’s research or extension competitive
grant programs. While the Farm Bill delineates criteria for being recognized as
a Center of Excellence, such as coordination and cost effectiveness, the
leveraging of resources using public-private partnerships, and the ability to
increase economic returns to rural communities, it will be important that NIFA
hear from the community about what the scope of a Center of Excellence should
be, and what our stakeholders believe are the strengths and weaknesses of some
of the models that are used by other federal agencies.
Section 7214 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (Pub. L. 113-79)
(i.e., the 2014 Farm Bill) amends section 1672(D) of the Food, Agriculture,
Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5925f) to require the Secretary
of Agriculture to prioritize Centers of Excellence that are established for
purposes of carrying out research, extension, and education activities relating
to the food and agricultural sciences (as defined in section 1404 of the
National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7
U.S.C. 3103)) for the receipt of funding for any competitive research or
extension program administered by the Secretary. The amendment takes effect on
October 1, 2014. The Agency is considering different ways to implement the
“priority” consideration of grant proposals from Centers of Excellence,
including using the Center of Excellence distinction as a tie-breaker, should
proposals be equally ranked for funding during our peer review process, or
providing additional points to Center of Excellence proposals as part of
applying evaluation criteria during the peer review process.
A
center of excellence is composed of 1 or more of the following entities that
provide financial or in-kind support to the Center of Excellence: State
agricultural experiment stations; colleges and universities; university
research foundations; other research institutions and organizations; Federal
agencies; national laboratories; private organizations or corporations; and
individuals.
The criteria for Centers of Excellence include efforts: to ensure coordination
and cost effectiveness by reducing unnecessarily duplicative efforts regarding
research, teaching, and extension; to leverage available resources by using
public-private partnerships among agricultural industry groups, institutions of
higher education, and the Federal Government; to implement teaching initiatives
to increase awareness and effectively disseminate solutions to target audiences
through extension activities; and to increase the economic returns to rural
communities by identifying, attracting, and directing funds to high-priority
agricultural issues. Where practicable, the criteria for recognition as a
center of excellence shall also include efforts to improve teaching capacity
and infrastructure at colleges and universities (including land-grant colleges
and universities, cooperating forestry schools, Non Land Grant Colleges of
Agriculture, and Schools of Veterinary Medicine). NIFA is considering using a
process where an applicant could self-identify as a Center of Excellence in an
area of science as part of a particular grant application (using the
legislative criteria described above), and the applicant’s justification would
be evaluated as part of the peer review process, or using a process separate
from the grant application process, where an applicant could request
designation as a Center of Excellence, and should the Agency grant such a designation,
it would potentially be applicable to multiple grant competitions where
proposed work fell within a particular area of science.
NIFA is holding web-based listening sessions to obtain comments to consider in
developing a process for implementing the Centers of Excellence provision. The
web- based listening sessions are open to the public. Written comments and
suggestions may be submitted to Ms. Valeria Best at the address above.
NIFA plans to consider stakeholder input received from this
web-based listening session as well as other written comments in developing a process
to implement the Centers of Excellence provision for FY 2015.
Done at Washington, DC this____ day
of July, 2014.
Sonny Ramaswamy
Director
National Institute of Food and Agriculture