Purpose: The
U.S/ Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute for Food and
Agricultures (NIFA) announces the FY 2020 Equipment Grant Program (EGP) to
increase access to shared special purpose equipment/instruments for scientific
research for use in the food and agricultural sciences programs in our Nation's
institutions of higher education, including State Cooperative Extension Systems.
The program seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of fundamental and
applied research at eligible institutions, by providing organizations with
opportunities to acquire equipment/instruments that support the research,
research training, and extension goals of the organization.
EGP
is designed to strengthen the research, education, and/or extension capacity of
institutions by funding the purchase of one, shared-use, major piece of
equipment only that may be too costly and/or not appropriate for
support through other NIFA grant programs. An instrument acquired with support
from the EGP program is expected to be fully operational by the end of the award
period. The program does not fund research projects, including research that
uses the equipment acquired with support from the program, and the program does
not support the operation and maintenance of facilities.
Eligible
instrumentation:
a single, well-integrated piece of
equipment/instrument. Well-integrated means that the ensemble of equipment that
defines the instrument enables specific fundamental or applied research
experiments in the food and agricultural sciences, including data science and
data systems, programs to be undertaken; separating or removing an element or
component of such an integrated instrument would preclude that research from
occurring or succeeding.
Ineligible
instrumentation: suites of equipment
to outfit research laboratories/facilities or to conduct independent
experiments simultaneously. Similarly, the EGP does not fund common, general
purpose ancillary equipment that would normally be found in a laboratory and/or
is relatively easily procured by the organization or through other NIFA grant
programs. Rather, it is intended to help fund items of equipment that will
upgrade infrastructure.
Funding
Amount/ Project Period:
up to $500,000 for up to 3
years
Link
to Funding Opportunity Announcement
Institutional
Limit: 1
Internal
Competition: To
participate in the university’s selection process,please
submit the following, assembled
into a single PDF file, to the Office of the Vice President for Research
via this
portal, with a copy to your Associate Dean for
Research by
May 19, 2020:
·
Names and departments or affiliations of
the Project Director and other key personnel or partners
·
Title of program and/or funding
opportunity announcement number
·
Brief project description (2 pages
maximum)
·
Budget
·
Brief biographical
sketch
A committee
will be convened to review the material and make a recommendation. For questions
or issues with submission through the portal, email the limited submission
mailbox (limitedsubmissions@uky.edu), or call 257-2861.
Agency
Deadline: June 23, 2020