RFAs: Dairy Health, Efficiency and Resource Dynamics Initiative (US)

Objective

• Dairy HERD recognizes that cross-disciplinary collaborative teams that leverage the strength and expertise of diverse scientific fields may be needed to examine the complex relationships among dairy health and management, economics and the environment.

Areas of Research 

• Dairy HERD will consider applications addressing one or more of the following objectives:
  • Economics analyses related to potential reductions in the prevalence of animal health conditions in the context of the associated environmental outcomes
  • Develop or improve decision-support tools and/or models through an enhanced understanding of feedback loops and trade-offs amongst animal health and herd management, economics and environmental outcomes
  • Examine and quantify the impact of dairy cow and heifer health on environmental outcomes.

Funding Information

• A total of US $1.3 million is available for this funding opportunity.
• Requests of $500,000 up to $1,000,000 per project will be considered.
• Duration: Projects up to 2 years in length are eligible for funding.

Eligibility Criteria

• Dairy HERD welcomes applications from all domestic and international higher education institutions, nonprofit and for-profit organizations and government-affiliated research agencies.
• Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to perform the proposed research as Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) may apply through their home institution or organization.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Dairy HERD will not consider applications addressing:
  • Research that seeks to increase milk production or to reduce environmental impacts only by increasing milk production efficiency;
  • Research that requires the use of grant funds to install equipment on one or more farms; and
  • Research that is not relevant to U.S. dairy production systems.

Application Requirements

• Applicants are strongly encouraged to address the following elements in submitted applications:
  • A literature review that outlines the current state of the science and novelty of the proposed research;
  • Multi-disciplinary collaborations;
  • Informed by interaction with the industry;
  • Explanation of how the proposed approach will contribute to addressing knowledge gaps;
  • Potential for results to be implemented at a scale into diverse dairy production systems in the U.S.;
  • Explanation of potential challenges and/or barriers to adoption of results;
  • Relevance to a wide range of U.S. dairy production systems.

For more information, visit FFAR.