Small Grants Program
Overview
2012-13 Fiscal Year
Scott Loveridge
Director, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Professor, Dept. of Ag., Food & Res Econ
Michigan State University
About the Regional Rural Development
Centers
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Federally funded program – part of
USDA line item
4 Centers
NCRCRD
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Mission: Strengthen the ability of
the land grant system to execute its
rural development mission.
Among four Centers, NCRCRD alone
offers small grants
Center’s Themes
(Based on visits to 12 states)
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Innovation Diffusion
Sustainable Communities
Leadership Development
Entrepreneurial Communities
Theme: Innovation Diffusion for Rural
Development
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Agriculture
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Other areas
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Water saving
Ethanol, Alternative Bio-fuels, Bio-lubricants
Biomaterials
Nano-technology
Broad band & related comm tech
Wind
Manufacturing process improvement
Will return to this in a few minutes
Theme: Sustainable Communities
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Planning for wind power
Green buildings (database development and
research, ideal community building codes,
entrepreneur training)
Energy efficiency
Mitigating and adapting to climate change
Equity & social justice
Reinvent rural manufacturing
Youth engagement
Asset based development
Theme: Entrepreneurship
New Americans
 Value-added (esp. small & mid-size farms)
 Entrepreneurs in the new economy
 Identifying and supporting
entrepreneurs
 Youth development
 Local foods
 Social entrepreneurship
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Theme-Leadership
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Community coaching
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Governance
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Effectiveness, best practices, training
Leadership across generations
Building Strong Sovereign nations
Local Government Finance & Efficiency
Poverty/crime reduction
Effective Social Services
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Rural health delivery
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Elder care, drug abuse, obesity, mental health
Personal finance education
Rural schools
Small Grants Program Summary
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More than one NC state REQUIRED
Multi-disciplinary/integrated preferred
Review by panel; summary review by NCRCRD
Board of Directors
Expected start date mid-fall
Example deliverables:
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Grant proposal—highest priority
Conference/workshop
Curriculum
Training
Publishable manuscript
Small Grants Review Process
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Initial review and classification by
Director
Single-blind review by faculty or
other experts from appropriate
subject-matter areas
Final review and budget
recommendation by NCRCRD Board
of Directors
Lessons from prior years
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Use NCRCRD seed funds to get
organized to write a larger grant?
Specify the target agency and
program.
Multi-state yes, but whole region is
not necessary.
Avoid including long lists of people
who “might” be interested.
Present true partnerships. One-sided
or last-minute partnerships don’t
review as well.
Lessons continued…
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Document how your NCRCRD small grant
will seed future activities, especially if the
proposed final outputs do not include a
major grant proposal.
Explain how the activity will benefit other
land grants in the region.
Engage other 1862 Land Grants, but also
consider 1890, 1994 Land Grants. (List
available on Center web site.)
Hispanic-serving institutions also eligible.
Virtual Fellow Program?
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Last year we targeted funds towards a
study of the feasibility of implementing a
12 state technology and expertise sharing
network.
Dr. Maureen Kilkenny accepted a short
term assignment to conduct the study.
Report is coming out soon. There’s a
webinar tomorrow with preliminary
information & an opportunity to comment.
We will decide on next steps after the
final report is complete.
Early Career Grants?
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No formal call this year.
Only one applicant last year.
Persons interested in this may apply under
the small grants and simply need to find a
mentor in another North Central state to
co-PI.
Flexible reimbursement schedule
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In the past, we suggested one
invoice when project is completed.
Now, PI’s institution can issue up to
three invoices over the course of
the project, as long as a progress
report is submitted at the same
time.
One invoice at the end is still an
option (final report required).
New this year: 2 fiduciary
arrangements are possible
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If you plan to hiring staff, you need
to go through all the approvals and
if your grant is funded, we will send
the money to your institution.
If you don’t need to hire staff, you
can skip some of the approvals and
request reimbursement from us.
Time Line
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Ideas sent to Director (any time, reviewed in order
rec’d.)
Proposals due 5 p.m. ET, Jan 10
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Late proposals will be rejected without review
Proposals that don’t follow formatting guidelines will be
rejected without review.
Preliminary decisions at April board meeting subject
to final USDA approval and congressional funding.
We will try to start projects October 1st, 2012. We
have limited control over actual start date due to
vagaries of Federal and University approvals. This
year, projects had their funding around Nov. 1.
All funded projects will have 12 months from their
start date.
Want to know more about
successful proposals?
Ask the PI for a copy
 Plug into a webinar (all funded
proposals now present a webinar
on their project)
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Want more information?
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http://ncrcrd.org lists grants funded
under last round of competition
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PI, Co-PIs
Title of Grant
Project abstract
Webinar archive
Feedback
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Call for proposals is found at:
http://ncrcrd.msu.edu/ncrcrd/call_for_proposals