General Services Administration Alert
The General Services Administration (GSA)/System for Award Management (SAM) is experiencing delays processing certain private entity registration information for new registrants, updates to existing entity registrations and annual renewals. If you are not able to upload your application in Grants.gov prior to the funding opportunity close date because of issues related to these delays and are still awaiting a response to your pending SAM.gov help desk ticket, then USDA/NIFA will accept your application through the following process. Please note, this process is only valid for the issues noted above and is a one-time occurrence. Additionally, please allow sufficient time for your SAM.gov issue to be resolved prior to using the alternate submission process. Read more
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI) focuses on collaborative science engagement that intends to develop a community of researchers across both crops and animals that will lay the foundation for expanding knowledge concerning genomes and phenomes of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States. Success of the initiative will inform approaches to understanding how variable weather, environments, and production systems interact with genetic diversity present in crops and animals to impact growth and productivity. This will provide greater accuracy in predicting crop and animal performance under variable conditions and more efficient selection of well-adapted, superior genotypes that farmers and ranchers can produce.
These goals require interdisciplinary approaches that combine technologies such as advanced computing, automated high throughput phenotyping and genotyping as well as climatic modelling to be successful. The initiative seeks to build on efforts such as the Plant Genome Research Project, the National Animal Genome Research Program, and other public initiatives. Key criteria include promoting fair access to data, software, germplasm, and other biological materials through open data sources, standards, and exchange of research materials. The initiative also seeks to connect animal sciences (e.g. animal physiology, meat science, animal nutrition, and veterinary science), plant sciences (e.g. agronomy, crop modeling, and plant physiology) and allied fields including genetics, genomics, artificial intelligence, informatics, statistics and engineering.
The Secretary may make grants under this subsection to: 1. State agricultural experiment stations; 2. colleges and universities; 3. university research foundations; 4. other research institutions and organizations; 5. Federal agencies; 6. national laboratories; 7. private organizations, foundations, or corporations; 8. individuals; or 9. any group consisting of two or more of the entities described in subparagraphs (A) through (H). A consortium of eligible entities is encouraged to apply under this RFA.
