Education

To address the complex challenges of the 21st Century, resources are needed to improve scientific and agricultural literacy; and to recruit and train a skilled workforce to implement the scientific practices and advance technologies needed to remain competitive in the global markets.  Therefore, NIFA’s education grant portfolio seeks to accomplish the following three goals: workforce development through grants for scholarships and fellowships; enhancing the research, teaching, and extension capacity at Minority Serving Institutions; and foster learning and engagement in the food and agricultural sciences through programs and opportunities at secondary and postsecondary institutions.

Capacity Building: NIFA broadens representation within the agricultural pipeline through its capacity building programs. These programs facilitate access to higher education and support research, teaching, and extension activities at minority-serving institutions and outside of the land grant university system.

• Hispanic-Serving Institution Education Grants Program (HSI)
• 1890s Capacity Building Grants Programs
• 1994 Education, Extension, and Research
• Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program (ANNH)
• Distance Education Grants for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (DEG)
• Resident Instruction Grants Program for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (RIIA)

• Agriculture and Food Research Initiative's Education and Workforce Development
  • Professional Development Opportunities for Secondary School Teachers (PD-STEP)
• Capacity Building Grants for Non-Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCA)
• Secondary Education, Two-Year Postsecondary Education, and Agriculture in the K-12 Classroom Challenge Grants Program (SPECA)
• Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields Program (WAMS)
• Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program

• Agriculture and Food Research Initiative's Education and Workforce Development
  • Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU) Program
  • Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships
• Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program (MSP)
• National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship Program (NNF)