United States Department of Agriculture

The Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants are designed to help institutions develop competitive projects and to attract new scientists and educators into careers in high-priority areas of national need in agriculture, food, and environmental sciences. FASE Grants consist of New Investigator Grants, Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowship Grants, and Strengthening Grants. Strengthening Grants are further divided into Sabbatical Grants, Equipment Grants, Seed Grants, Strengthening Standard Grants, Strengthening CAP (Coordinated Agricultural Project) Grants, and Strengthening Conference Grants. Fifteen percent of AFRI funding is set aside for Strengthening Grants and Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowship Grants.

Strengthening Grant Eligibility

Strengthening Grants are available during each funding cycle to ensure that researchers at institutions and states that are underrepresented in terms of Federal research, education, and/or extension funding receive a portion of AFRI funds. Strengthening Grants are limited to: (1) small and mid-sized or minority-serving degree-granting institutions that previously had limited institutional success for receiving Federal funds; or (2) State Agricultural Experiment Stations or degree-granting institutions eligible for USDA Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) "formally known as the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research” funding. A flow chart showing strengthening grant eligibility is included in each AFRI Request for Applications.

When determining eligibility for these grant types, the following definitions apply:

• Small and mid-sized institutions are academic institutions with a current total enrollment of 17,500 or less including graduate and undergraduate and full- and part-time students.
• Minority-serving institutions are accredited academic institutions whose enrollment of a single minority group or a combination of minority groups exceeds 50 percent of the total enrollment, including graduate and undergraduate and full- and part-time students.
• Limited institutional success means institutions that are not among the most successful universities and colleges for receiving federal funds for science and engineering research. A list of successful institutions is provided in Table 1 of each AFRI RFA.
• Every year, NIFA determines the states that are eligible for USDA EPSCoR funding. This list includes states having a funding level no higher than the 38th percentile of all states based on a 3-year rolling average of AFRI funding levels, excluding FASE Strengthening funds granted to EPSCoR states and small-mid-sized and minority-serving, degree-granting institutions.

This is the fourteenth year of the AFRI program and EPSCoR eligibility is based on a three year rolling average. While significant FY 2019 funds are unobligated, the eligibility determination therefore is based on the data obtained from grants made through the AFRI program from 2016 through 2018. For FY 2020, the following States meet the requirements for this category:

• Alaska
• Connecticut
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Mississippi
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• New Mexico
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Utah
• Vermont
• West Virginia
• Wyoming

Other entities eligible for USDA EPSCoR funds in FY 2020 include the following United States commonwealths, territories, possessions and their successors, and the District of Columbia:

• American Samoa
• District of Columbia
• Guam
• Micronesia
• Northern Marianas
• Puerto Rico
• Virgin Islands (U.S.)

Since NIFA determines EPSCoR state eligibility every year, a number of states will join or leave (“graduate from”) the 19-state list every year. The chart shows the history of each EPSCoR state’s eligibility status since 2007.

Several other federal agencies also provide funding to EPSCoR states. The EPSCoR program originated in the National Science Foundation (NSF), which provides funding to the eligible states’ EPSCoR committees (NSF EPSCoR (link is external)). By contrast, NIFA provides EPSCoR funding directly to individual investigators in those states. In addition, NIFA’s EPSCoR funding mechanism is embedded in the FASE program as noted above (a graphic illustration of FASE and EPSCoR funding diagrams this relationship). For these reasons, NIFA is said to have an EPSCoR-like program. NIFA is a member of the EPSCoR Interagency Coordinating Committee (link is external) (EICC) headed by NSF. The EICC was established in FY 1992 to improve coordination among and between the federal agencies in implementing EPSCoR and EPSCoR-like programs consistent with the policies of those agencies.