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The NIFA Report A Tale of Two Branches

The NIFA Report A Tale of Two Branches. Daniel Schmoldt National Program Leader. Outline. National Institute Transition. 2008 Farm Bill authorized creation of a new agency, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (the National Institute )

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The NIFA Report A Tale of Two Branches

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  1. The NIFA ReportA Tale of Two Branches Daniel Schmoldt National Program Leader

  2. Outline

  3. National Institute Transition • 2008 Farm Bill authorized creation of a new agency, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (the National Institute) • All current authorities administered by CSREES have been transferred to the new agency. • The transition was completed October 1, 2009 • The National Institute will raise the profile of agricultural science, including research, education and extension. A presidentially-appointed director will lead the National Institute.

  4. National Institute Transition A coordinating committee, comprised of CSREES staff, was created to help guide the transition The coordinating committee presented its options for the organization of the National Institute The final decision on the organization of the National Institute rests with the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Under Secretary and the new Director of the National Institute.

  5. National Institute Switch

  6. Office of the REE Under Secretary • The 2008 Farm Bill authorizes creation of the Research, Education, and Extension Office (REEO) to coordinate the science activities across USDA • PLANT HEALTH AND PRODUCTION AND PLANT PRODUCTS • ANIMAL HEALTH AND PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS • FOOD SAFETY, NUTRITION, AND HEALTH • RENEWABLE ENERGY, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND ENVIRONMENT • AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY • AGRICULTURE ECONOMICS AND RURAL COMMUNITIES • Under Secretary = USDA Chief Scientist • REEO will assist the Under Secretary in developing a roadmap for agricultural research, education, and extension, and coordinate those functions across the mission area and all USDA research

  7. Personnel

  8. USDA Priorities Global Food Security and Hunger -NIFA supports new science to boost U.S. agricultural production, improve global capacity to meet the growing food demand, and foster innovation in fighting hunger by addressing food security for vulnerable populations. Climate Change - NIFA-funded projects generate knowledge to develop an agriculture system that maintains high productivity in the face of climate changes. This will help producers to plan for and make decisions to adapt to changing environments and sustain economic vitality, and can take advantage of emerging economic opportunities offered by climate change mitigation technologies.

  9. USDA Priorities Sustainable Energy - NIFA contributes to the President's goal of energy independence with a portfolio of grant programs to develop biomass use for biofuels, designing optimum forestry and crops for bioenergy production, and to produce value-added bio-based industrial products. Childhood Obesity - NIFA-supported programs ensure that nutritious foods are affordable and available, and provide guidance so that individuals and families are able to make informed, science-based decisions about their health and well-being.

  10. USDA Priorities Food Safety - NIFA food safety programs work to reduce the incidence of food-borne illness and provide a safer food supply by addressing and eliminating causes of microbial contaminants, educating consumer and food safety professionals, and developing food processing technologies to improve safety.

  11. FY 2010 NIFA Budget

  12. Mandatory Programs

  13. AFRI • Authorizations: Agriculture and Food Research Initiative = NRI ($500M ) + Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems ($200M) • Integrated = 30% of funds • Research = 60% basic + 40% applied • Six science program areas • PLANT HEALTH AND PRODUCTION AND PLANT PRODUCTS • ANIMAL HEALTH AND PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS • FOOD SAFETY, NUTRITION, AND HEALTH • RENEWABLE ENERGY, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND ENVIRONMENT • AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY • AGRICULTURE ECONOMICS AND RURAL COMMUNITIES

  14. AFRI – Types of Proposals • Single Function • Research • Education • Extension • Integrated, Multi-Functional • Conferences • Coordinated Agricultural Projects

  15. Comments from the Director: Where NIFA is Headed Both high crop yields and safe and sustainable practices are critically important, and both deserve USDA’s continued full support. What you have told us, almost to a person, is that we won’t accomplish much if we try to do everything. Your advice was to sharpen our focus – don’t be afraid to take on big, bold issues like food safety or global food security, but pick a reasonable number of topics to tackle because we are an agency with limited financial and human resources.

  16. Comments from the Director: Where NIFA is Headed What you told us was that we weren’t working at scales large enough to make the kind of impact we want–large scale initiatives that draw scientists from a range of disciplines and the totality of public and private research institutions, focused on a few achievable outcomes can be more successful than a hundred pilot projects on a many different projects. And while contributing to scientific knowledge is critically important…this is not sufficient. The scientific knowledge learned from these efforts must be translated into real solutions for real people.

  17. Comments from the Director: Where NIFA is Headed But instead of focusing on many different problems at once, we should be figuring out how those many problems resolve into a limited and discrete set of issues and tackle the underlying causes that can ultimately contribute solutions to the wider array of problems. In short, science at, and funded by, USDA needs to be focused, leverage other resources, and concentrate on select priorities at a large scale to produce useful outcomes. Our success in science ultimately will be matched by impact in society.

  18. Comments from the Director: Where NIFA is Headed More of our awards will have requirements for an education and/or outreach through extension; they will require creating opportunities to recruit more students in the excitement of research in agriculture; we won’t be funding as many small, individual-investigator grants as in the past.

  19. Comments from the Director: Where NIFA is Headed These five areas represent our vision for USDA science, and identify the expectations we have for what USDA science will accomplish for the American people: Global Food Security and Hunger Climate Change Sustainable Energy Childhood Obesity Food Safety

  20. January 6th Announcement AFRI RFAs in February 2010 will commit up to $800 million in funding for new grants, contingent on annual appropriations in following years (Huh? Only $262M) AFRI will support work in the following 2008 Farm Bill “priority science” areas : plant health and production and plant products; animal health and production and animal products; food safety, nutrition, and health; renewable energy, natural resources, and environment; agriculture systems and technology; and agriculture economics and rural communities. Programs focused on these areas will use a disciplinary-based approach to building a foundation of knowledge critical for solving current and future problems.

  21. January 6th Announcement • AFRI will support interdisciplinary, multi-functional projects in five “societal challenges”: • Keep American agriculture competitive while ending world hunger • Improve nutrition and end child obesity • Improve food safety for all Americans • Secure America’s energy future through renewable biofuels • Mitigate and adapt agriculture to variations in climate • Five separate RFAs, with multi-institutional, integrated grants up to $25M over 5 years with possible renewal grants for some programs

  22. January 6th Announcement $5M for NIFA Fellows program $800M - $262M = $538M (÷4)  $133M in large grants for 2010 (half of AFRI) Timing for grant preparation (minimum): 9 weeks for programs with letters of intent; 90 days for large, complex projects; 4 weeks for others

  23. Specialty Crops – Legislative Definition Specialty crops are defined in law as fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.

  24. SCRI Legislation

  25. SCRI Legislation

  26. SCRI Program Summary

  27. SCRI 2008-2009 Results

  28. SCRI 2008-2009 Results Total Funds PB&G PM PP&PE Tech Food Safety Awarded $28,365,000 $3,786,571 $4,836,260 $10,438,688 $6,128,772 $3,174,709 $46,653,354 $8,470,733 $11,976,052 $14,019,209 $7,225,477 $4,961,881

  29. Things to Remember • Big funding changes ahead for NIFA • Some large projects will be initiated with out-year funding commitments (Centers, Consortia??) • Both Farm Bill (disciplinary science) and Administration (societal challenge) priorities are accommodated • Summing discretionary, mandatory, and future commitments = $2B in 2010 • Stay tuned, and hold on, it’s going to be a wild ride

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