NIFA’s strategy for global engagement centers on developing carefully considered partnerships that can advance U.S. research in agriculturally-related fields.
The Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program is part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Development Lab effort to bring together diverse partners to discover, test, and scale breakthrough solutions to critical challenges in international development. PEER is a competitive grants program that invites scientists in developing countries to apply to USAID for funds to support research and capacity-building activities that will be conducted in partnership with U.S. Government (USG)-funded scientists. These developing country scientists seek out partners that are currently active NIFA grantees.
USAID-Funded PEER Projects Involving a NIFA Grantee:
- Enhancing conservation of African buffalo and rangeland habitat through molecular investigations of Foot-and-mouth disease at the wildlife-livestock interface;
- Promoting community and regional food systems in the Eastern Cape, South Africa;
- The occurrence and fate of pharmaceutical residues from their sources to water bodies and food chain;
- Community-based monitoring and management of Madagascar’s National Park protected areas;
- Climate change adaptation of rural households in charlands of Bangladesh;
- Off-grid, clean energy cooling for affordable storage of perishables for bottom-of-the-pyramid farmers;
- Numba Wachokkeri: Empowering indigenous peoples to protect their forests with cutting-edge technology;
- Developing organic soil management technologies to enhance carbon capture, climate adaptability, and sustainability of smallholder farms in Tunisia; and
- The use of modeling, monitoring and smart metering for sustainable groundwater management in a Tunisian coastal aquifer.
For more information about this program, please visit the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine website for PEER. For NIFA-funded scientists seeking additional information, please contact NIFA's Center for International Programs. This current cycle differs from previous PEER cycles in a number of ways including a shorter project duration and the possibility of using PEER funds to support U.S. partner travel. For details on the call for proposals and other information, please review the request for applications. Pre-proposals can be submitted by following this link to the online application portal.