National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Funding Opportunity Number: USDA-NIFA-OP-006510, requests applications for the Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) program for fiscal year (FY) 2018 to increase agricultural literacy through K-12 education. The anticipated amount available for FY 2018 is approximately $500,000. This RFA is being released prior to the passage of an appropriations act for FY 2018. Enactment of additional continuing resolutions or an appropriations act may affect the availability or level of funding for this program. This notice identifies the objectives for AITC projects, deadline dates, funding information, eligibility criteria for projects and applicants, and application forms and associated instructions needed to apply for an AITC cooperative agreement.
NIFA's Agriculture in the Classroom Program (AITC) serves nearly 5 million students and 60,000 teachers annually through workshops, conferences, field trips, farm tours, and other educational activities. AITC programs include working with state AITC activities engaged in a variety of issues relating to agricultural literacy. Other programs emphasized by the NIFA AITC office include:
- Science literacy
- Agricultural careers
- Nutrition
- Pre-service and professional develop opportunities for teachers.
The disciplines of agriculture and education have been related for much of our nation's history. When most Americans lived on farms or in small towns, students often did farm chores before and after school. Old schoolbooks have numerous agricultural references. As the farming population began to decline, agricultural emphasis decreased in educational materials as well.
A core group of educators and agriculturalists pushed for more youth education about agriculture. They recognized the interlocking role of farming and food and fiber production with environmental quality, which included wildlife habitat, clean water, and the preservation of forests. This group went on to promote the national effort of AITC. Today AITC continues to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society so they will become citizens who support wise agricultural policies.
The purpose of AITC is to award a cooperative agreement to:
• ensure that future generations are agriculturally literate;
• encourage K-12 educators to integrate information about the food and agricultural system across curricula to assist students in understanding the pivotal role of agriculture in the U.S. and world economies, to introduce students to environmental and social issues impacting food, agricultural, natural resources, and human (FANH) sciences, and to expose them to higher education and career opportunities in the FANH sciences; and
• support a network of partners to carry out the program at the State and local levels, by fostering the development of active and effective AITC programs in each of the fifty States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands of the United States, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.
Types of Applications:
In FY 2018, you may only submit a new application to the AITC Program.
New application: This is a project application that has not been previously submitted to the AITC Program. We will review all new applications competitively using the screening for administrative requirements, review panel evaluation of proposals using evaluation criteria and selection process described in Part V—Application Review Requirements.
NIFA will issue a new AITC award (cooperative agreement) on an additional four-year continuation basis. A continuation award is an award instrument by which NIFA agrees to support a specified level of effort for a predetermined period of time with a statement of intention to provide additional support at a future date, provided that performance has been satisfactory, appropriations are available for this purpose, and continued support would be in the best interest of the federal government and the public.
Interested applicants should send the following documents in sequence in one PDF no later than 4:00 p.m. on the internal submission deadline:
- Principal Investigator’s (PI's) names and departmental affiliation
-
Co-PI's names and departmental affiliation(s)
-
A list of possible participating organizations (if applicable)
-
Proposal Title
-
2 page Project summary to include the relevance of the project to the goals of AITC.
Formatting Guidelines and Page Limit:
-
Font/size: Times New Roman (12 pt.)
-
Document margins: 1.0” (top, bottom, left and right)
-
Standard paper size (8 ½” x 11)
Questions concerning the limited submissions process may be submitted to limitedsubs@psu.edu.