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Food Assistance and Nutrition Programs: Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program

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The Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP) awards grants and cooperative agreements to support extramural research that focuses on USDA's domestic food and nutrition assistance programs. Research is targeted to meet critical information needs of the Administration, Congress, program managers, policy officials, clients, the research community, and the general public. This program allows ERS to partner with innovative, creative, and forward-looking researchers. Major research themes of FANRP are:

  • diet and nutritional outcomes,
  • food program targeting and delivery, and
  • program dynamics and administration.

Grants and cooperative agreements are competitively awarded through a tightly-run peer review process. Most awards are between $100,000 and $300,000 but may vary by particular announcement. FANRP's Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements programs are publicly announced via ERS's website, email updates, and Grants.gov. FANRP also funds research opportunities through the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) program.

Recent Awards and Previous Years' Awards

Fiscal 2011 Awards

FANRP's competitive grants and cooperative agreements program made 10 awards in fiscal 2011 to fund research on relationships between food assistance programs, food choices, and the economy; and using behavioral economics and incentives to promote child nutrition. Behavioral economics research is part of an ongoing collaboration with USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) since FY 2010 to develop a research program in behavioral economics to study USDA's child nutrition programs.

Previous Years' Awards*

*In each table of awards, research projects are grouped by topic area. There were no awards in fiscal 2009.

Overview of FANRP's Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program

The Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program encourages new and innovative research and joint projects with ERS researchers.

  • Grants are awarded when the research project supports the research mission and does not require substantial involvement between ERS staff and the extramural researchers during the research period.

  • Cooperative agreements, awarded when the research project requires more substantial involvement between ERS and the extramural researchers, allow ERS staff to supplement their own expertise with the knowledge and resources of academic and private institutions.

Submissions and Proposal Evaluation

FANRP’s competitive grants and cooperative agreements program for fiscal 2011 was announced in February 2011. The announcement describes the application process. The deadline for proposal submissions is April 4, 2011. See Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2011, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process.

The proposal evaluation process includes peer review panels consisting of experts from academia, government, and the private sector. In addition to reviewer’s comments, FANRP’s selection process considers coverage of priority research areas, overlap between proposals and ongoing projects, program needs, potential benefits from research collaborations on particular projects, and availability of funding.

Visit Grants.gov to find and apply for grants available across the Federal Government.

For more information, contact: Victor Oliveira

Web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov

Updated date: October 21, 2011