Slots: 2 proposals per eligible institution
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, March 1, 2024, 5pm PT Contact RII.
LOI: N/A
External Deadline: May 3, 2024
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: These funds are available for equipment grants. USDA is not committed to fund any particular application or to make a specific number of awards
Anticipated Award Amount: The amount available for the Equipment Grants Program in FY 2024 is approximately $4,800,000.
Who May Serve: To receive an award in FY 2024, the lead institution can only have two (2) USDA-NIFA EGP awards as lead institution in the previous two (2) EGP funding cycles. A list of previous awards is available on the program’s funding opportunity page under relevant links.
Link to Award: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/FY24-EGP-RFA-P.pdf
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
This RFA is being released prior to the passage of a full appropriations act for FY 2024. Enactment of a continuing resolution, appropriations act, or other authorizing legislation may affect the availability or level of funding for this program. The amount available for support of this program in FY 2024 is approximately $4,800,000.
The Equipment Grants Program (EGP) serves to increase access to shared-use special purpose equipment/instruments for fundamental and applied research for use in the food and agricultural sciences programs at institutions of higher education, including State Cooperative Extension Systems. The program seeks to strengthen the quality and expand the scope of fundamental and applied research at eligible institutions, by providing them with opportunities to acquire one shared-use piece of equipment/instrument that supports their research, research training, and extension goals and may be too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NIFA grant programs. EGP grants are not intended to replace requests for equipment in individual project applications. The program emphasizes shared-use instrumentation that will enhance the capabilities of researchers, educators, and extension specialists both within and outside the proposing organization.
Proposals to the EGP must involve acquisition of a single, well-integrated piece of equipment/instrument. Well-integrated means that the ensemble of equipment that defines the instrument enables specific fundamental or applied research experiments in the food and agricultural sciences, including data science and data systems; separating or removing an element or component of such an integrated instrument would preclude that research from occurring or succeeding. An instrument acquired with support from EGP is expected to be fully operational by the conclusion of the first year of the project.
The EGP does not support the acquisition of suites of equipment (i.e., common, general purpose ancillary equipment) to outfit research laboratories/facilities or to conduct independent experiments simultaneously. Similarly, the EGP does not fund common, general purpose ancillary equipment that would normally be found in a laboratory and/or is relatively easily procured by the organization or through other NIFA grant programs. Rather, it is intended to help fund items of equipment that will upgrade infrastructure. Moreover, EGP does not fund research projects, including research that uses the equipment acquired with support from the program, nor building or modifying facilities to house the equipment.
In FY 2024, EGP will support the installation of equipment (but not the costs associated with building or modifying facilities to house the equipment), equipment warranty for the duration of the award, and one-time equipment use training.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.