NIFA USDA-NIFA-CGP-009106: 2023 Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program

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NIFA requests applications for the Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program for FY 2022 to enable colleges and universities to provide the quality of education necessary to produce baccalaureate or higher degree level graduates capable of strengthening the nation’s food and agricultural scientific and professional workforce.Specifically, applications submitted to this grants program must state how the funded project will address the HEC Program Goals:

1. To strengthen institutional capacities, including curriculum, faculty, scientific instrumentation, instruction delivery systems, and student recruitment and retention, to respond to identified State, regional, national, or international educational needs in the food and agricultural sciences, or in rural economic, community, and business development;
2. To attract and support undergraduate and graduate students in order to educate the students in national need areas of the food and agricultural sciences, or in rural economic, community, and business development;
3. To facilitate cooperative initiatives between two or more eligible institutions, or between eligible institutions and units of State government or organizations in the private sector, to maximize the development and use of resources such as faculty, facilities, and equipment to improve food and agricultural sciences teaching programs, or teaching programs emphasizing rural economic, community, and business development;
4.  To design and implement food and agricultural programs, or programs emphasizing rural economic, community, and business development, to build teaching, research, and extension capacity at colleges and universities having significant minority enrollments;
5.  To conduct undergraduate scholarship programs to meet national and international needs for training food and agricultural scientists and professionals, or professionals in rural economic, community, and business development; and
6. To increase the number and diversity of students who will pursue and complete a postsecondary degree in the food and agricultural sciences.
7. To enhance the quality of instruction for baccalaureate degrees, master’s degrees, and first professional degrees in veterinary sciences, in order to help meet current and future workforce needs in the food and agricultural sciences.
8. To conduct graduate and postdoctoral fellowship programs to attract highly promising individuals to research or teaching careers in the food and agricultural sciences.

Grant Types

1. Planning Activity: Planning Activity Grants support meetings that bring together food and agricultural educators to identify education/teaching needs, update information, or advance an area of education/teaching. Support for a limited number of meetings covering subject matter encompassed by this solicitation will be considered for partial or, if modest, total support. Individual planning activity grants must not exceed $30,000 for up to three years and are not renewable. Indirect costs are not permitted on Planning Activity grant awards. Planning Activity Grants may be used to facilitate strategic planning session(s) required of faculty, industry, professional association, community leaders, or other necessary participants for the specific purpose of developing a formal plan leading to a subsequent submission of a Collaborative Grant as described herein. A Planning Activity grant application may not be submitted in the same year for which a Collaborative Grant application for the same project is also submitted.
    
2. Standard Grant: Standard Grants support targeted original education/teaching projects. An eligible, individual institution, independent branch campus, or branch institution of a State system may submit a grant application for project activities to be undertaken principally on behalf of its own students or faculty, and to be managed primarily by its own personnel. The applicant executes the project without the requirement of sharing grant funds with other project partners. Applicants may request up to $150,000 (total, not per year) for a Standard Grant application.
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3. Collaborative Grants: Collaborative Grants support projects with at least one additional partner or a multi-partner approach to enhance education/teaching programs. Collaborative Grants should build linkages to generate a critical mass of expertise, skill, and technology to address education/teaching programs related to the food and agricultural sciences. Grants can reduce duplication of efforts and/or build capacity and should be organized and led by a strong applicant with documented project management knowledge and skills to organize and carry out the initiative.

• Collaborative Grant Type 1 (CG1) (Applicant + One Partner): Applicants may request up to $300,000 (total, not per year) for a CG1 project. In this type of project, the applicant executes the project with assistance from one additional partner. The partners must share grant funds. Specifically, the applicant institution will transfer at least one- half of the awarded funds to the other institution participating in the project.
   
• Collaborative Grant Type 2 (CG2) (Applicant + Two or more Partners): Applicants may request up to $750,000 (total, not per year) for a CG2 project. The applicant executes the project with assistance from at least two additional partners. The additional partners must share grant funds. The applicant institution/organization submitting a CG2 proposal must retain at least 30 per cent, but not more than 70 percent of the awarded funds and no cooperating entity may receive less than 10 percent of awarded funds. A CG2 project differs from a CG1 in project scope and impact. CG2 projects must support a multi- partner approach to solving a major state or regional challenge in food and agricultural sciences education at the baccalaureate, masters or DVM level. CG2 projects are characterized by multiple partners (each providing a specific expertise) organized and led by a strong applicant with documented project management knowledge and skills to organize and carry out the initiative.