1. Food and Agriculture Science Enhancement Grants (FASE)
Liang-Shiou Lin National Program Leader NIFA

2. FASE Grants Limited to AFRI programs
Strengthen science capabilities in research, education, and/or extension programs
Help institutions develop competitive scientific programs
Attract new scientists into careers in high-priority areas

3. AFRI Grant Types
Standard Grants (research; education; extension; or integrated)
Conference Grants
Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants (restricted eligibility)

4. FASE Grant Types Pre-doctoral Fellowship Grants
Post-doctoral Fellowship Grants
New Investigator Grants
Strengthening Grants:
Seed Grants
Sabbatical Grants
Equipment Grants
Strengthening Standard Grants
2.5% of AFRI budget set aside for fellowships, 7.5% set aside for Strengthening Grants

5. Separate RFA and review panel for Fellowships
Pre-doctoral Fellowships:
$75,000/2 years (stipend, tuition, fees, fringe benefits, supplies, travel)
Research or education
Applicants must have completed qualifying exam by proposal deadline
Must be U.S. citizen, national or permanent resident
Post-doctoral Fellowships:
$130,000/2 years (salary, fringe benefits, supplies, travel, publication)
Research, education, extension or integrated
Doctoral degree awarded in a time window specified in RFA
Separate RFA and review panel for Fellowships

6. New Investigator Grants:
Less than 5 years of postgraduate, career-track experience
Research, education, and/or extension
Has not received competitive Federal research funds beyond pre- or postdoctoral grants or AFRI seed grants
No specific RFA: identify AFRI program for your topic and submit to that program by its deadlines
Proposal same as non-new investigator except box checked indicating eligibility

7. Strengthening Grants (seed, sabbatical, equipment, strengthening standard) Eligibility
Limited to EPSCoR states, small and mid-sized or minority-serving degree-granting institutions with limited institutional success
EPSCoR = Experimental Program for Stimulating Competitive Research. States with a funding level no higher than the 38th percentile of all states from AFRI during previous 3 years (19 states).
EPSCoR states are recalculated every year; states can move in and out of the list

8. FY 2013 USDA EPSCoR States Alabama Alaska Connecticut Idaho Kentucky
Maine
Mississippi
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wyoming

9. Other USDA EPSCoR Eligible Entities
American Samoa
District of Columbia
Guam
Micronesia
Northern Mariana Islands
Puerto Rico
Virgin Islands of the U.S.

10. EPSCoR States for the Last Ten Years
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Idaho
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Mississippi
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Vermont
West Virginia
Wyoming

11. Strengthening Grant Eligibility (cont’d)
Small and mid-sized = current total enrollment of 17,500 or less
Minority-serving = enrollment of a single minority group or a combination of minority groups exceeds 50 percent of the total enrollment
Limited institutional success = not among the most successful universities and colleges for receiving Federal funds for science and engineering research and development (Table 1 in RFA)

12. Strengthening Grant Types:
Seed Grants ($150,000/2 years):
Collect preliminary data for future AFRI funding
Single function research, education or extension
Sabbatical Grants:
Up to one year of salary, funds for travel & supplies; mini-sabbaticals also appropriate
Equipment Grants: 50% of cost or $50,000 (whichever is less) for one piece of equipment ($10, ,000). Requires Non-federal matching, but waivers (<$25K) for lowest one third institutions (Table 2 in RFA)
7-page limitation (project narrative) for these three grant types

13. Strengthening Grant Types (cont.)
Strengthening Standard Grants:
Research, education, and/or extension
Proposal same as standard proposal (18 pages) except box checked indicating eligibility
No specific RFA for any of the strengthening grant types: identify AFRI program for your topic and submit to that program by its deadlines
No specific panel; reviewed with standard proposals in same panel

14. How it works (2 funding chances in a program!)
All 18-page proposals first compete against each other & ranked (including New Investigators and strengthening standards)
Program can support top X number of applications with 92.5% of program funds (=initial funding cut-off)
7.5% of program funds available to support other meritorious strengthening standard proposals below initial funding cut-off
No set-aside funds for new investigators, but program can go below cut-off to fund a NI proposal
7-page seed/sabbatical/equipment grants ranked separately

15. Helpful eligibility
flow chart
Last Page
Of AFRI
RFA’s