FFAR 2025 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award

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G. Melandri (Plant Sciences) 
 

Institutions may submit one nominee to the 2025 New Innovator Award program.
 

The New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award provides early-career scientists the investment needed to propel them into successful research careers.
Young faculty in the sciences often struggle to secure grant funding. We established the New Innovator Awards to launch the careers of promising scientists whose research addresses significant food and agriculture challenges. These awards allow the grantees to focus exclusively on research without the pressure of securing additional funding.

 Eligible Individuals

Faculty members at eligible institutions with the creative ideas, skills, knowledge and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research program as principal investigator are invited to work with their institution to develop an application for support.

• The nominated faculty member must have been hired on or after August 1, 2021 for a tenure-track or equivalent position and may work in any discipline or any department within the institution.
• Preference will be given to individuals near the onset of their independent research career and who are within eight (8) yearsof receiving a Ph.D. or equivalent degree.
• Individuals with significant research experience prior to obtaining their faculty position will not be considered for this award. For the purpose of this funding opportunity, significant research experience is defined as a nominee that has been awarded a substantial research grant (three to five years of support) or has received project funding totaling over $1M within the time of their tenure position or has been awarded similar career development awards with similar budgetary scopes.
• This research concept must directly benefit U.S. agricultural interests.

FFAR recognizes that agriculture and food sciences are highly complex, requiring individuals from a variety of disciplines to realize the potential in each field or research area. Particularly for early-stage investigators, collaborators are often essential for success. While this award is made to an outstanding early career investigator, applicants should include information regarding any essential collaborators and include letters of support from those collaborators. In these letters, the collaborators should comment on the potential of the individual to achieve success.