The Higher Education Challenge (HEC) program provides funding to eligible applicants to help ensure a competent, qualified, and diverse workforce will exist to serve the food and agricultural sciences system.
The HEC program is intended to strengthen institutional capacities, such as curriculum, faculty, scientific instrumentation, instruction delivery systems, and student recruitment and retention. HEC projects respond to identified state, regional, national, or international educational needs in the food and agricultural sciences, or in rural economic, community, and business development.
Who Is Eligible to Apply
- 1862 Land-Grant Institutions
- 1890 Land-Grant Institutions
- 1994 Land-Grant Institutions
- Hispanic-Serving Institutions
- State Controlled Institutions of Higher Ed
- Non-Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCA)
- U.S. public or private nonprofit colleges and universities offering a baccalaureate or first professional degree in at least one discipline or area of the food and agricultural sciences;
- Land-grant colleges and universities, (including land-grant institutions in the Insular Areas);
- Colleges and universities having significant minority enrollments and a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences; and
- Other colleges and universities having a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences.
Projects supported by the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program will: (1) address a state, regional, national, or international educational need; (2) involve a creative or non-traditional approach toward addressing that need that can serve as a model to others; (3) encourage and facilitate...
NIFA staff for the Higher Education Challenge (HEC) program hosted a webinar on February 7, 2024 for applicants interested in applying to HEC competitive program. The webinar focused on the HEC Request for Applications (RFA) and general program guidelines for FY 2024. The purpose of the Higher...
HEC focuses on improving formal, baccalaureate, or master’s degree level food and agricultural sciences education, and first professional degree-level education in veterinary medicine such as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM).
Section 1405 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (NARETPA), as amended, (7 U.S.C. 3121) designates the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the lead Federal agency for agriculture research, extension, and teaching in the food, agricultural, natural resources, and human sciences. Authority for this program is contained in section 1417(b)(1) of NARETPA (7 U.S.C. 3152(b)(1)).
Solomon Haile, National Program Leader | Solomon.Haile@usda.gov
Cierra Campbell, Program Specialist | Cierra.Campbell@usda.gov
NIFA Reinforces the Food and Ag Education Pipeline
NIFA's education programs are designed to enhance the agricultural and food workforce pipeline through programs that support workforce development, agricultural literacy, student recruitment and retention, and capacity-building.
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