U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
AFRI NIFA Fellowships Grant
Program
Margie D. Lee
Dept Population Health
BHSI Fellowship Writing Workshop
Phase 1 – Feb 5, 2011
United States Dept Agriculture
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative
Competitive Grants Program
NIFA Fellowships Grant Program
The AFRI NIFA Fellowships Grant
Program is focused on:
• predoctoral students: developing technical
and functional competence
• postdoctoral scientists: research
independence and teaching credentials
• in the agriculture, forestry, and food sciences
that are within NIFA’s challenge areas
• through well-developed and highly interactive
mentoring and training activities.
What does NIFA fund?
• Program Area Priority – NIFA Fellowships will support
multidisciplinary projects across any of the three
components of the agricultural knowledge system
(research, education, and/or extension) that address
one or more of the following issues:
– Keep American agriculture competitive while ending world
hunger (animal, insect & plant disease research, animal,
insect, and plant production/control, economics, etc)
– Improve nutrition and end childhood obesity
– Improve food safety for all Americans;
– Secure America’s energy future through renewable biofuels;
– Mitigate and adapt agriculture to variations in climate
(animal and plant diseases, production, ecology,
bioremediation).
AFRI NIFA Fellowships Grant Program
• In FY 2010, approximately $6 million is available to
support the NIFA Fellowships Grant Program within
AFRI to provide fellowships to outstanding pre- and
postdoctoral students in the agricultural sciences.
• AFRI invites applications from doctoral candidates
and individuals who will soon receive or have
recently received their doctoral degree for a Pre- or
Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant, as appropriate, for
research, education, extension, or integrated
activities
• Pre and Postdoc Fellowships are mentored awards
Award
• All Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowship Grants
will be separate and individual awards.
• All Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowship Grants
have award duration of two years.
Eligibility
• Predoc: students pursuing a Ph.D. degree and
who have advanced to Ph.D. candidacy by
January 1 of the fiscal year in which the
application is submitted
• Postdoc: who have received their doctoral degree
not earlier than January 1 of the fiscal year three
years prior to the submission of the proposal and
not later than nine months after the proposal due
date.
• Applicant must be citizen, national, or permanent
resident
Predoctoral Fellowship Grants:
• $37,500 per year for two years = $75,000 total
– stipend support: up to $23,000 per year
– tuition, fees, and fringe benefits (insurance): up to
$12,000 per year)
– Travel: up to $2,500 per year
– Institutional allowance, in lieu of indirect costs,
not to exceed $2,400 per year, may be requested
within the $75,000 per award maximum limit.
– Indirect costs are not permitted on Predoctoral
Fellowship Grant awards.
UGA Grad Tuition Spring 2011
Hours
In-State
Registered Tuition
1
275
Out-of-State
Tuition
896
Total of
Student
Fees Listed
Above
833
Total
In-State
Tuition
and Fees
Total
Out-of-State
Tuition and
Fees
1108
1729
2
550
1792
833
Fellowship recipient enroll for 3 hrs for 2 semesters/yr
3
825
2688
833
1383
2625
1658
3521
4
1100
3584
833
1933
4417
5
1375
4480
833
2208
5313
6
1650
5376
833
2483
6209
7
1925
6272
833
2758
7105
8
2200
7168
833
3033
8001
9
2475
8064
833
3308
8897
10
2750
8960
833
3583
9793
11
3025
9856
833
3858
10689
12
3300
10752
833
4133
11585
UGA Grad School Enrollment Policy
• Doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy
and thesis-writing master’s students who have
satisfactorily completed all required courses (exclusive
of 7000 and 7300) will be allowed to register at a rate
equivalent to the prevailing in-state tuition rate.
• Continuous enrollment = registering for a minimum of
three (3) credits in at least two semesters per
academic year (Fall, Spring, Summer)
• Graduate students must register for a minimum of 3
hours of credit during any semester in which they use
University facilities and/or staff time.
Therefore Fellowship recipients, who have been admitted
to candidacy, only have to enroll for 3 credits for two
semesters per year in order to maintain graduate status.
Postdoctoral Fellowship Grants
• total award of $130,000 for two-year duration.
– Salary and benefits
– Other costs are allowable costs if properly justified
•
•
•
•
Supplies
Travel
Workshops
Publication costs
– Institutional allowance, in lieu of indirect costs, not to
exceed $2,400 per year, may be requested within the
$130,000 maximum award limit.
– Indirect costs are not permitted on Postdoctoral
Fellowship Grant awards.
What are the components of the
application?
• Electronic application package that contains
all of the required forms: www.grants.gov
• Administrative & Compliance forms
• Project content:
– Candidate
– Training and mentoring plan
– Mentors
– Training environment
– Training Project (research, extension, teaching)
Candidate: documented achievement of
high educational quality and excellence
• Biosketch:
– Degrees and Majors
– Grade point average and rigor of coursework (list of
grades, courses and GPA) OR include transcripts in
application package
– Graduate Record Exam scores
– Publications and published abstracts
– Scholarly activities and evidence of leadership
– Honors and other acknowledgement of
accomplishments
– Professional society memberships
Candidate: documented achievement of
high educational quality and excellence
• Project narrative should also include a narrative
statement of your history and previous
experiences that are relevant to your potential
success as an independent scientist. You should
discuss your strengths and weaknesses and how
this grant will provide the resources to strengthen
both.
• Your mentor’s support letter should also address
your potential and where you rank among other
students/postdoc that have been in the
program/lab
Components of the application
• Application REVIEW will evaluate content:
– Candidate
– Training and mentoring plan
– Mentors
– Training environment
– Training Project (research, extension, teaching)
Training and Mentoring Plan:
• Activities that support the development of your
research project (journal clubs, conferences,
workshops, wetlabs)
• Activities that support development of your scientific
expertise (courses or workshops in biostats,
proteomics, bioinformatics, etc)
• Activities such as clubs, courses or workshops that will
be used provide professional development (scientific
writing, grantwriting, oral communication, teaching,
certifications)
• How will your mentors function to facilitate the above
activities and to assess your progress and
improvement?
Components of the application
• Application REVIEW will evaluate content:
– Candidate
– Training and mentoring plan
– Mentors
– Training environment
– Training Project (research, extension, teaching)
Mentors
• Are mentors experienced and accomplished in
the relevant areas?
– Publications
– Funding
• Mentors’ letters should describe
– Their responsibilities in the mentoring plan
– State applicant’s access to space and resources
– Describe their previous experiences and success in
mentoring students and/or postdocs?
Components of the application
• Application REVIEW will evaluate content:
– Candidate
– Training and mentoring plan
– Mentors
– Training environment
– Training Project (research, extension, teaching)
Training Environment
• Description should include information about
the institution/college/school’s facilities and
resources available to the applicant
– Relevant Facilities
– Relevant areas of excellence
– Special or unique resources that may not be
available elsewhere
– Description of training programs available that
illustrate a fruitful training environment
Components of the application
• Application REVIEW will evaluate content:
– Candidate
– Training and mentoring plan
– Mentors
– Training environment
– Training Project (research, extension, teaching)
Training Project
•
•
•
•
Research Projects
Education Projects
Extension
Or a combination of the above = *Integrated
Project*
(Integrated projects are favored in USDA’s
funding formula)
Research Projects
• Single-function Research Projects support fundamental or applied
research conducted by the individual Fellow, who will work with a
mentor within the same discipline or as part of a multidisciplinary
team.
– Fundamental research means research that (i) increases knowledge or
understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and has the
potential for broad application and (ii) has an effect on agriculture,
food, nutrition, or the environment.
– Applied research means research that includes expansion of the
findings of fundamental research to uncover practical ways in which
new knowledge can be advanced to benefit individuals and society.
– Multidisciplinary projects are those in which investigators from two
or more disciplines collaborate closely to address a common problem.
These collaborations, where appropriate, may integrate the
biological, physical, chemical, or social sciences. (favored in USDA’s
funding formula)
Education Projects
• Education Projects address one or both of the
following key strategic actions:
– Training students for Associate, Baccalaureate,
Master’s or Doctoral degrees; and/or
– Preparing K-12 teachers and higher education faculty
to enhance their understanding and, therefore, the
teaching of agriculture, forestry, and food sciences.
• These projects should lead to measurable,
documented changes in learning, actions, or
conditions in an identified audience or
stakeholder group. These projects should
synthesize and incorporate a wide range of the
latest relevant research results
Extension Projects
• Extension Projects address one or more of the
following key strategic actions:
• Support informal education to increase food and
agricultural literacy of youth and adults;
• Promote science-based agricultural literacy by
increasing understanding and use of food and
agricultural science data, information, and
programs;
• Build science-based capability in people to
engage audiences and enable informed decision
making;
Extension Projects
• Develop new applications of instructional tools and
curriculum structures that increase technical
competency and ensure global competitiveness;
• Offer non-formal learning programs that increase
accessibility to new audiences at the rate at which new
ideas and technologies are tested and/or developed at
the community-scale; and
• Develop programs that increase public knowledge and
citizen engagement leading to actions that protect or
enhance the nations’ food supply, agricultural
productivity, environmental quality, community vitality,
and/or public health and well-being.
Integrated Project
• An Integrated Project includes at least two of
the three functions of the agricultural
knowledge system (i.e., research, education,
and extension) within a project, focused
around a problem or issue. The functions
addressed in the project should be interwoven
throughout the life of the project and act to
complement and reinforce one another.
Postdoc Award - perk
• Fellow will be required to serve on an AFRI
peer review panel in Washington, DC to
evaluate competitive proposals during the
Fellowship.