Open

The Forests and Related Resources topic area aims to address the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations through the development of environmentally sound approaches to increase productivity of forest lands, improve sustainability of forest resources, and develop value-added materials derived from woody resourc ...

The Plant Production and Protection (Biology) topic area will support research to examine novel ways of enhancing crop production and protection by developing new methods for plant improvement and pest management; new food and non-food crop plants through plant breeding; diagnostic technologies for plant diseases; plant characteristics that reduce the harmful impact of plant pests, biotic, and abi ...

The Animal Production and Protection topic area aims to support the development of innovative, marketable technologies that will provide significant benefit to the production and protection of agricultural animals. New technologies for rapid detection, point-of-care, treatment, and prevention of disease are needed to improve productivity and enhance the biosecurity of our herds and flocks. Better ...

The goal of the Conservation of Natural Resources topic area is to commercialize innovative technologies that are developed with the purpose to conserve, monitor, improve, and/or protect the quality and/or quantity of natural resources and reduce potential waste streams while sustaining climate-smart, optimal farm and forest productivity and profitability. The objective of this topic area is the c ...

The Food Science and Nutrition topic area aims to fund projects that support research focusing on developing new and improved processes, technologies, products, or services that address emerging food safety, food processing, and nutrition issues. The program will fund projects to: 1) increase the understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of food; 2) improve methods for the ...

The objective of the Rural and Community Development topic area is to improve the quality of life and standard of living in rural communities by creating and commercializing technologies that address important economic and social development issues or challenges in rural America. Projects must explicitly discuss the specific rural problem or opportunity that will be examined and how the proposed s ...

The Aquaculture topic area funds research projects with the overall goal of leading to improved production efficiency and increased competitiveness of private sector, commercial aquaculture in the United States. This topic area aims to develop new technologies that will enhance the knowledge and technology base necessary for the expansion of the domestic aquaculture industry. Aquaculture increasin ...

The objective of the Biofuels and Biobased Products topic area is to promote the use of non-food biobased products and biofuels by developing new or improved technologies that will lead to increased competitiveness of value-added products from agricultural materials. This research will lead to new opportunities to diversify agriculture and enhance agriculture’s role as a reliable supplier of raw ...

The Small and Mid-Size Farms topic area aims to promote and improve the sustainability and profitability of small and mid-size farms and ranches (where annual sales of agricultural products are less than $350,000 for small farms and between $350,000 and $999,999 for mid-size farms – hereafter referred to as small farms). Small farms account for 90 percent of all U.S. farms and they play an impor ...

The objective of the Plant Production and Protection (Engineering) topic area is to enhance crop production in both conventional and organic systems by creating and commercializing engineering technologies that enhance system efficiency and profitability and that protect crops from pests and pathogens in economically and environmentally sound ways. Engineering projects must describe the system nee ...