All Grant Opportunities

The Abell Foundation is dedicated to the enhancement of the quality of life in Maryland, with a focus on Baltimore City, by supporting innovative efforts to solve systemic social, economic, and environmental problems.

USDA NIFA. Focuses on the societal challenge to end obesity among children, the number one nutrition-related problem in the United States. Total funding: $6.3 million. Deadline: June 28, 2017.

USDA NIFA. The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative – Education and Workforce Development focuses on developing the next generation of research, education, and extension professionals in the food and agricultural sciences. Total funding: $24.1 million. Deadline: July 19, 2018.

USDA NIFA. Promotes and enhances the scientific discipline of food safety, with an overall aim of protecting consumers from microbial and chemical contaminants that may occur during all stages of the food chain. Total funding: $11 million. Deadline: June 21, 2017.

USDA NIFA. Focuses on the societal challenge to keep American agriculture competitive and end world hunger by ensuring the availability and accessibility of safe and nutritious food. Total funding: $16.8 million. Application due: July 7, 2016.

USDA NIFA. Supports grants in the six AFRI priority areas to continue building a foundation of knowledge critical for solving current and future societal challenges. Total funding: $182 million. Deadline: varies by program.

USDA NIFA. Focuses on sustainable increase in agricultural productivity and the availability and accessibility of safe and nutritious food, within the priority area of Climate, Land Use, and Land Management. Total funding: $6.3 million. Deadline: July 13, 2017.

USDA NIFA. Focuses on approaches that promote transformational changes in the U.S. food and agriculture system within the next 25 years. Projects should significantly improve the supply of abundant, affordable, safe, nutritious, and accessible food, while providing sustainable opportunities for expansion of the bioeconomy through novel animal, crop, and forest products and supporting technologies. Total funding: $80 million. Letter of intent due: June 27, 2018. Deadline: Oct. 10, 2018.

USDA NIFA. Focuses on multidisciplinary systems approaches, which integrate new technologies and strategic management that solve water availability and quality challenges in food production systems. Total funding: $34 million. Letter of intent due: May 17, 2017. Application due: Aug. 2, 2017.

Alcoa, Inc. Invests in meaningful and systemic improvements in environmental sustainability by supporting research, dialogue, standards, and actions.

USDA NIFA. Supports the generation of new information that will assist federal regulatory agencies in making science-based decisions about the effects of introducing into the environment genetically engineered organisms. Total funding: ~$3.5 million. Deadline: Feb. 22, 2018.

EPA. Provides quick, targeted technical assistance to selected local or tribal governments using a variety of tools to stimulate a discussion about growth and development and strengthen local capacity to implement sustainable approaches. Deadline: ongoing.

USDA NIFA. Supports research to combat citrus diseases and pests, and the dissemination and commercialization of relevant information, techniques, and technologies. Total funding: $21.7 million. Deadline: June 29, 2018.

USDA NRCS. Encourages producers to address resource concerns by undertaking additional conservation activities and improving, maintaining, and managing existing conservation activities. Deadline: ongoing.

USDA NIFA. Addresses high priority issues related to pests and their management by supporting projects that will ensure food security and respond effectively to other major societal pest management challenges with comprehensive IPM approaches that are economically viable, ecologically prudent, and safe for human health. Total funding: ~$8.1 million. Deadline: May 8, 2018.

Supports broad, interdisciplinary research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. Total funding: ~$11 million. Deadline: fall 2014.

Grant funds, made available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 4 grant program, will support and improve the capacity and production of community housing development organizations and community development corporations. Deadline: ongoing.

US EPA Office of Environmental Education. Promotes environmental stewardship and helps develop knowledgeable and responsible students, teachers, and citizens. Total funding: ~$2.7 million. Deadline: spring 2015.

Laura Jane Musser Fund. Promotes public use of open space that improves a community’s quality of life and public health, while ensuring the protection of healthy, viable and sustainable ecosystems by protecting or restoring habitat for a diversity of plant and animal species. Deadline: spring 2015.

USDA NRCS. Provides financial and technical assistance to help agricultural producers plan and implement conservation practices that address natural resource concerns. Includes Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) and Conservation Activity Plans (CAP). Deadline: ongoing.

Northeast Center for Risk Management Education. Helps farm and ranch families succeed through targeted risk management strategies, including tools and approaches that reduce the adverse financial effects of the uncertainties of weather, yields, and other factors. Deadline: closed.

Northeast SARE. For commercial producers who have an innovative idea they want to test using a field trial, on-farm demonstration, marketing initiative, or other technique. Funding: up to $15,000/project. Deadline: Dec. 3, 2019.

USDA AMS. Aims to increase domestic consumption of, and access to, locally and regionally produced agricultural products, and to develop new market opportunities for farm and ranch operations serving local markets. Total funding: $13.4 million. Deadline: May 7, 2018.

USAID. Feed the Future Innovation Labs are USAID-funded long-term, multi-disciplinary applied research and capacity-building efforts to address the problem of food insecurity and malnutrition in developing countries. Total funding: ~$50 million. Deadline: closed.

EPA. The Office of Pesticide Programs is soliciting applications to facilitate dialogue and collaboration on pesticide safety programs. The grantee will plan and coordinate meetings, workshops, and conferences that include partners and stakeholders involved in the safe use of pesticides. Total funding: $2.5 million. Deadline: July 5, 2015.

USDA NIFA. Supports training students for master’s and doctoral degrees in food, agricultural, and natural resource sciences; and Special International Study or Thesis/Dissertation Research Travel Allowances for eligible USDA NNF beneficiaries. Total funding: $3.1 million. Deadline: Oct. 31, 2017.

EPA. The Office of Pesticide Programs is soliciting applications from organizations to distribute funds to established, federally recognized Pesticide Safety Education Programs. Funds will be distributed for fiscal years 2015 through 2019. Total funding: $5 million. Deadline: June 22, 2015.

Northeast SARE. For graduate students who are researching topics in sustainable agriculture that will serve the interests of farmers and the greater agricultural community. Funding: $15,000/project. Deadline: May 8, 2018.

US EPA. Projects are expected to advance protection and restoration of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Total funding: ~$9.5 million. Deadline: closed.

The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation. The goals of this program are to promote quality health and mental health care for underserved individuals and address environmental health issues. There is a geographic focus on Baltimore, MD.

EPA New England’s main competitive grant program to work directly with communities to reduce environmental risks and improve human health and quality of life. Funding levels vary. Deadline: closed.

HUD. Funding for studies to improve HUD’s and the public’s knowledge of housing-related health and safety hazards, and to improve or develop new hazard assessment and control methods with a focus on key residential health and safety hazards. Total funding: ~$2 million. Pre-application deadline: July 16, 2015.

USDA NIFA. Funds projects that address agriculture and science educational needs, involve a creative or non-traditional approach, encourage better working relationships in the university science and education community and the private sector, and result in benefits that will last beyond the project duration. Total funding: $4.5 million. Deadline: May 7, 2018.

Grants are available to registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits and tax-exempt public service agencies for projects that serve veterans and their families, and improve the physical health of their communities. Total funding: ~$16 million. Deadline: ongoing.

North American Pollinator Protection Campaign. Supports research to improve the health of honey bees. Total funding: $30,000. Deadline: closed.

Singing for Change. Facilitates an innovative curriculum combined with vocational gardening and landscaping training so that people in prison can reconnect to self, community, and the natural world. Total funding: up to $10,000. Deadline: closed.

UC Davis. The Horticulture Innovation Lab is looking for research project proposals in integrated pest management (IPM) practices important to, and appropriate for, smallholder farmers in the Feed the Future zones of Guatemala, Honduras, or Haiti. Total funding: $450,000. Deadline: Apr. 1, 2015.

Supports more balanced, forward-looking housing policies that acknowledge the importance of affordable rental housing and the role that various attributes of housing may play in promoting strong, resilient families and vibrant communities. Total funding: ~$150 million. Deadline: ongoing.

USDA NIFA. Addresses the immediate needs and the costs of transition that have resulted from the scheduled phase-out of the pesticide methyl bromide. Total funding: ~$1.8 million. Deadline: Jan. 30, 2018.

The MAPAIS is offering a small grants competition and encourages interested groups and individuals to submit proposals for possible funding. Proposal submissions must address an aquatic invasive species problem. Total funding: $30,000. Deadline: Mar. 20, 2020

Numerous grant programs to sustain, restore, and enhance our nation’s fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats.

First Nations Development Institute. Encourages Native American college students to enter agriculture and agriculture-related fields to better assist their communities. Six $1,000 scholarships are available. Deadline: Nov. 17, 2014.

Farm Fresh First/Cornell University. Supports agricultural research to improve the production of vegetables in New York State.

New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation. The newly consolidated Invasive Species Grant Program is designed to support projects that target both aquatic and terrestrial invasive species. Project locations must be in New York state. Total funding: $3 million. Deadline: Feb. 15, 2019.

USDA NIFA. Enhances the ability of producers and processors who have already adopted organic standards to grow and market high quality organic agricultural products. Total funding: $17.6 million. Deadline: Mar. 1, 2018.

Organic Farming Research Foundation offers funding for research on organic farming and food systems and the dissemination of these research results to organic farmers and the greater agricultural and research communities. Funding: $20,000 per project. Deadline: Dec. 15, 2017.

USDA Farm Service Agency. Supports nonprofits and public higher education institutions to improve farmer education on topics such as financial training, value-added production, recordkeeping, property inheritance, and crop production practices. Total funding: $2,500,000. Deadlines: Mar. 18 and May 27, 2016.

Northeast SARE. Supports agricultural service providers who want to conduct on-farm demonstrations, research, marketing, and other projects with farmers as active cooperators. Total funding: $15,000. Deadline: Oct. 17, 2017.

EPA. The Office of Pesticide Programs is soliciting applications to coordinate the development of educational and outreach resources for use by EPA’s partners and stakeholders involved in pesticide safety. Total funding: $5 million. Deadline: July 12, 2015.

NSF-NIFA. This program supports research on the processes that mediate beneficial and antagonistic interactions between plants and their viral, bacterial, oomycete, fungal, plant, and invertebrate symbionts, pathogens and pests. This joint NSF-NIFA program supports projects focused on current and emerging model and non-model systems and agriculturally relevant plants. Total funding: $14.5 million. Deadline: June 6, 2016.

EPA. Recognizes outstanding kindergarten through grade 12 teachers who employ innovative approaches to environmental education and use the environment as a context for learning for their students. Funding: $2,500/recipient. Deadline: Mar. 13, 2015.

Northeast SARE. Funds outcome-based train-the-trainer projects. Funding: $30,000 – $150,000/project. Deadline: Oct. 24, 2017.

Northeast SARE. Funds research, education, and on-farm demonstration projects, with an emphasis on projects that lead directly to improved farming practices and an enhanced quality of life for farmers and rural communities. Funding: $30,000 – $200,000/project. Deadline: Oct. 24, 2017.

Northeast SARE. Funds research to establish the feasibility of novel approaches, with the expectation that the new information will be used later in educational programs that promote farmer adoption of the novel approaches. Deadline: Oct. 24, 2017.

The Rhode Island Foundation makes grants to support projects that address significant community challenges, aim for lasting impact, and serve disadvantaged Rhode Islanders.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides grants for projects in the United States and U.S. territories that advance their mission to improve the health and health care of all Americans.

Southern IPM Center. Funding is available for project directors based in the southern region for projects that address global food security challenges including invasive species, endangered species, pest resistance, and impacts resulting from regulatory actions. Funding: up to $30,000/project. Deadline: Dec. 2, 2019.

Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety / UVM Extension. Funding for projects with very clear, near-term outcomes related to regionally important food safety issues among small to medium-sized producers and processors. The projects can be focused on research, education, or both. Total funding: $46,800. Deadline: Sept. 1, 2017.

USDA NIFA. Supports potato research programs that focus on varietal development and testing and potato varieties for commercial production. Total funding: ~$1.2 million. Deadline: Apr. 22, 2015.

NYS Dept. of Agriculture. Aims to enhance the competitiveness of New York specialty crops (fruits, vegetables, maple, honey and horticulture crops). Priority is given to projects that focus on research and grower education, food safety, and marketing. Total funding: $1 million. Deadline: closed.

USDA AMS. Aims to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops—fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture). Total funding: $72.1 million. Deadline: May 24, 2018.

USDA AMS. Funds state departments of agriculture to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops by funding collaborative, multistate projects that address food safety, plant pests and disease, research, crop-specific issues, and marketing and promotion. Total funding: $3 million. Deadline: Jan. 14, 2016.

USDA NIFA. Addresses the critical needs of the specialty crop industry. Grants will support research and extension activities that address key challenges of national, regional, and multistate importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture. Total funding: $80 million. Deadlines: Dec. 10, 2018.

USDA NIFA. Supports the development of canola as a viable supplemental and alternative crop in the United States. Total funding: ~$767,000. Deadline: Apr. 18, 2018.

The Surdna Foundation makes grants to nonprofit organizations in the priority areas of sustainable environments, strong local economies, and thriving cultures.

The Switzer Fellowship Program offers one-year Fellowships to highly talented graduate students in New England and California whose studies and career goals are directed toward environmental improvement and who clearly demonstrate leadership in their field. Funding: $15,000 Deadline: Jan. 9, 2015.

EPA. The Office of Pesticide Programs is soliciting proposals to provide education, training, resources, and technical assistance to increase Integrated Pest Management implementation in kindergarten to 12th grade public and tribal schools nationwide. Total funding: $250,000. Deadline: Aug. 10, 2015.

Supports integrated programs that address the comprehensive needs of children, their families, and communities. Total funding: ~$380 million. Deadline: ongoing.