Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Education and Workforce Development: Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU)

Overview

<div>The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Education and Workforce Development (EWD) focuses on developing the next generation of research, education, and extension professionals in the food and agricultural sciences. In FY 2020, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) requests applications for the AFRI’s Education and Workforce Development (EWD) Program areas to support:</div> <ul> <li>professional development opportunities for K-14 educational professionals;</li> <li>workforce training at community, junior, and technical colleges;</li> <li>training of undergraduate students in research and extension; and</li> <li>fellowships for predoctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars.</li> </ul> <div>The AFRI EWD RFA addresses projected shortfalls of qualified graduates in the agricultural, food, and renewable natural resources sectors of the U.S. economy. This RFA seeks applications for education and training grants that focus on further enhancing the distinct components of the pipeline for developing the workforce in the food and agricultural sciences. Thus, the AFRI EWD has four overarching goals:</div> <ol> <li><strong>Growing Agricultural Literacy and Workforce Development for the Future</strong> offers institutional grants to provide K-14 teachers and administrators with increased knowledge of food and agricultural sciences and help them develop improved curricula to train the agricultural workforce for the future. See Program Area Description in Part 1, C, 1 for “Professional Development for Agricultural Literacy” (Program Code A7501).</li> <li><strong>Training or Retraining of Agricultural Workers</strong> provides institutional training grants to develop a technology- and data-savvy workforce, ready for the field and industrial jobs. These include opportunities for the development of new workforce training programs, and the expansion, improvement, or renewal of existing workforce training programs and curriculum. See Program Area Description in Part 1, C, 1 for “Agricultural Workforce Training Grants” (Program Code A7601).</li> <li><strong>Developing Pathways</strong> offers undergraduates in food, agriculture, or allied disciplines, the technical and leadership skills required for employment in the food and agricultural sectors or in graduate programs. NIFA will award institutional grants that offer experiential learning opportunities, beyond traditional classroom experience or course work that include but are not limited to internships, externships, practicums, global leadership, and study abroad, in research and extension. These opportunities must be designed to help students develop the critical thinking, problem solving, digital competency, international experiences, and communication skills needed for future employment and/or higher education. See Program Area Description in Part 1, C, 2 for “Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates” (Program Code A7401).</li> <li><strong>Advancing Science</strong> supports graduate and post-graduate education in agriculture and related disciplines. NIFA Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship program areas will continue to support predoctoral candidates and postdoctoral trainees respectively. These Fellowship awards can also enable interested predoctoral candidates and postdoctoral trainees to obtain training in industry and international research on issues relevant to U.S. agriculture. See Program Area Description in Part 1, C, 3 and Part 1, C, 4 for “Predoctoral Fellowships” (Program Code A7101) and “Postdoctoral Fellowships” (Program Code A7201), respectively.</li> </ol> <p><strong>Program Area Priority: Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU)</strong></p> <ul> <li>Project costs for REEU projects must be predominantly for student support, including items such as participant stipends, housing, meals, travel, and laboratory use fees. Costs in budget categories outside Participant Support must be modest and reasonable (and may include justified support for the coordination of the program).</li> <li>Tuition for course credit and promotional items ARE NOT allowable costs in this program.</li> <li>Requested Project Types: Research, Education, Extension or Integrated Projects</li> <li>Requested Grant Types: Standard Grants and FASE (Strengthening Standard) Grants only</li> <li>Projects must provide undergraduate students with experiential learning opportunities that include significant research and/or extension components in the food and agricultural sciences.</li> <ul> <li>Projects must be aligned with one or more of the six AFRI priority areas.</li> <li>Within the Farm Bill priority areas, the REEU program area may also include opportunities for digital and data competency development within the undergraduate research and extension learning experiences.</li> <ul> <li>The Food and Agriculture Cyberinformatics and Tools (FACT) initiative recognizes that data in agricultural systems is used to identify solutions and often involves high-dimensional and multi-scale data, machine learning, data visualization, and predictive modeling. Approaches to using data also can require transdisciplinary teams to work across scientific, economic, environmental, and industrial spheres. The FACT Initiative invests in efforts that integrate information technology, computer science, engineering, statistics, business, economics, and social sciences communities with traditional agricultural research, education, extension, as well as agricultural producers and food-system participants. NOTE: If a FACT component is included in the proposal, include the acronym “FACT” in the title.</li> </ul> <li>Education Coordinated Network for Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU-ECN): In addition to the priorities listed above, applications are solicited to develop a network of REEU projects and personnel that will foster national-level coordination of opportunities for students and to enhance collaboration among projects. The REEU program will award a single grant to an institution to maintain the education-coordinated network. The REEU- ECN will provide a clearinghouse for project outputs, data, and documents and it will create and maintain any number of collaboration spaces for REEU project directors and other key personnel to interact and share information, including but not limited to a listserve. The network will also be responsible for organizing the PD meeting in association with NIFA Program Leadership every 18 months to two years. Additionally, the network will create and maintain a portable public facing website, to include information on all funded REEU programs and links to the program websites. Coordination education network proposals should include the acronym “REEU-ECN” in the title. REEU-ECN will only award a single grant.</li> </ul> </ul>