NIFA is offering the Equipment Grants Program to enhance food and agricultural sciences research and training.

Applicants for the EGP must meet all the requirements discussed in this RFA. Failure to meet the eligibility criteria by the application deadline may result in exclusion from consideration or preclude NIFA from making an award. For those new to Federal financial assistance, NIFA’s Grants Overview provides highly recommended information about grants and other resources to help understand the Federal awards process.

Applications that do not satisfy all the screening criteria will be returned without review. Returned applications may not be resubmitted (with or without revision) under this solicitation. The initial screening criteria are the following:
1. Application must be received by the due date and time from an eligible institution.
2. The application must meet the Content and Form of the Application requirements as described in this RFA. This includes page length requirements, all required forms, and all files in Portable Document Format (PDF).
3. The proposed budget request must fall within the dollar amounts identified in the RFA.
4. The application does not exceed the limit of no more than two applications submitted to this program from an eligible lead institution.

The Equipment Grant Program (EGP) serves to increase access to shared-use special purpose equipment/instruments for fundamental and applied research for use in the food and agricultural sciences programs at institutions of higher education, including State Cooperative Extension Systems. The program seeks to strengthen the quality and expand the scope of fundamental and applied research at eligible institutions, by providing them with opportunities to acquire one major piece of equipment/instruments that support their research, training, and extension goals and may be too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NIFA grant programs.

The EGP does not support the acquisition of suites of equipment to outfit research laboratories /facilities or to conduct independent experiments simultaneously. Similarly, the EGP does not fund common, general purpose ancillary equipment that would normally be found in a laboratory and/or is relatively easily procured by the organization or through other NIFA grant programs. Rather, it is intended to help fund items of equipment that will upgrade infrastructure. Moreover, EGP does not fund research projects, including research that uses the equipment acquired with support from the program nor does it support the operation and maintenance of facilities.