NOFO: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grant Program (US)

This program encourages innovative teaching, education, or related community development proposals with potential to impact and become models for other institutions that serve underrepresented students at the regional or national level.

Goals

• Ensure America’s Agricultural System is Equitable, Resilient, and Prosperous
• Provide All Americans Safe, Nutritious Food
• Bolstering Nutrition Security & Health
• Translating Research into Action

Priorities

• Projects supported by this program must include/address one or more of the following priority need areas:
  • Attract and support undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups to prepare them for careers related to the food, agricultural natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) in the United States.
  • Enhance the quality of postsecondary instruction within the above disciplines.
  • Provide opportunities and access to FANH careers in the public, non-profit and private sectors.
  • Align the efforts of HSIs and other non-profit organizations to support academic development and career attainment of underrepresented groups.

Grant Categories

• Regular Grant: Regular Grants support targeted, original, scientific Education/Teaching Projects and Community Development Projects.
• Bridge Grant: Bridge Grants, a subset of Regular Grants, may be available to enhance institutional capacity with the goal of strengthening the capacity of the applicant’s education programs and the competitiveness of future grant applications.
• Collaboration Grant: Collaboration Grants for this program must be submitted by a group of two or more HSIs, forming a linkage arrangement for the purpose of carrying out common objective(s) on the group’s behalf.
• Conference Grant: Conference Grants support scientific meetings that bring together educators to identify education, teaching, and/or related community development needs, update information, or advance an area of education/teaching.
• Conference Data Grant: One of the Conference Grants will be awarded to an institution for an Assessment and Evaluation Conference to convene HSI awardees from across the country and Puerto Rico (invitees will be determined in collaboration with NIFA after the grant has been awarded, with the goal of a minimum of 25 institutions represented.

Funding Information

• The amount anticipated available for the HSI Education Grants Program is approximately: $15,329,953
• Minimum Award Amount: $50,000
• Maximum Award Amount:
  • Regular: $400,000
  • Regular Bridge: $200,000
  • Collaboration: $1,200,000
  • Conference: $50,000
  • Conference Data: $175,000
• Anticipated Number of Awards:
  • Regular: 10
  • Collaboration: 10
  • Conference: 2
• Grant Duration:
  • Regular and Collaboration: 48 Months
  • Conference: 36 Months

Eligible Projects

• The following describes the types of projects that are eligible for funding:
  • Education/Teaching Projects: Single-function Education/Teaching Projects develop human capital relevant to overall program goals for U.S. agriculture. Specific activities may include:
    • Developing practical applications to increase understanding of leadership roles, including critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills; ethics and professionalism; and working in teams;
    • Connecting the academic classroom experience with daily leadership roles and organizational activities;
    • Providing opportunities for mentoring and shadowing; and
    • Organizing leadership academies, workshops, trainings, etc.
  • The specific Educational Need Areas that support the HSI program goals are:
    • Curricula Design, Materials Development, and Library Resources (including development of courses of study and degree programs)
    • Faculty Preparation and Enhancement for Teaching
    • Instruction Delivery Systems
    • Scientific Instrumentation for Teaching.
  • Community Development Projects: Single-function Community Development Projects must deliver science-based knowledge and informal educational programs that lead to practical decision making. Community Development Projects may address one or more of the following:
    • Support informal education to increase food and agricultural literacy in youth and adults
    • Promote science-based agricultural literacy by increasing understanding and use of FANH science data, information, and programs
    • Build science-based capability to engage audiences and enable informed decision making.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications may only be submitted by Hispanic-Serving Institutions. For the purpose of the HSI Education Grants Program, an HSI is an institution of higher education that is an eligible institution as defined in 20 U.S.C. 1101a(a)(2) and has a minimum of 25 percent undergraduate full-time Hispanic enrollment (20 U.S.C. 1101a(a)(5)). Failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the application deadline may result in the application being excluded from consideration and, even though an application may be reviewed, will preclude NIFA from making an award.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.