USAID is offering the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats to Crops Grant to combat biotic threats to food security.

This full NOFO is being posted subsequent to a draft PD published in December 2020. Applications are due May 11, 2021. Questions must be submitted by March 25, 2021 at 4:00pm Washington, D.C. time to Leah Leach at lleach@usaid.gov.

This NOFO is to solicit Applications for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats to Crops. The CETC Innovation Lab will design, lead, and implement an applied research program focused on the control of current and emerging biotic threats to food security crops that the poor depend on. The program will also strengthen local research partners through capacity development while benefiting smallholder farmers and other beneficiaries of USAID assistance. The Innovation Lab will serve as a resource to USAID Missions and their implementing partners in their efforts to overcome critical crop pest, weed and disease constraints facing their national food systems. The Innovation Lab is broadly expected to help recognize, build on and influence impact pathways from crop biotic threat protection research to development outcomes through partnerships with USAID Mission-supported programs, national partners, private companies, community-based organizations, and other donors and their programs.

This United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) Draft Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is issued for the purpose of providing stakeholders and potential partners an opportunity to review, comment, suggest, and enhance areas in the attached Draft NOFO for a new global activity: Feed the Future (FTF) Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats to Crops (CETC), which aims to design, lead, and implement a research program focused on the control of current and emerging biotic threats to food security crops that the poor depend on. 

Please provide comments no later than January 22, 2021 by 4:00pm, Washington, DC time via email to Leah Leach at lleach@usaid.gov. While there is no limit on the length of submissions, we value concise, issue-specific comments with reference to page and section numbers in the draft design document. The CETC Innovation Lab funding opportunity will be issued at a later date and will be announced on the Grants website at https://www.grants.gov (anticipated in February 2021). All interested parties must respond to that notice of funding opportunity announcement separately from any response to this draft announcement. One award is anticipated, but USAID reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted in response to the NOFO. Following the posting of the NOFO, USAID will host a Q&A webinar approximately two weeks after the date of posting.

USAID seeks feedback in particular on the following questions:

1. Are the theory of change and programmatic objectives clear and realistic? How could they be improved?
2. Does the draft Program Description (Section A.IV) provide potential implementers with sufficient information and guidance about USAID’s overall objectives and expectations?
3. How can USAID and partners work more effectively with local actors and institutions to achieve meaningful sustainable progress?

Issuance of this pre-notice of funding opportunity request for comments does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. Government nor does it commit the U.S. Government to pay for any costs incurred in order to prepare response to this Pre-Notice.

This United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) Draft Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is issued for the purpose of providing stakeholders and potential partners an opportunity to review, comment, suggest, and enhance areas in the attached Draft NOFO for a new global activity: Feed the Future (FTF) Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats to Crops (CETC), which aims to design, lead, and implement a research program focused on the control of current and emerging biotic threats to food security crops that the poor depend on. 

Please provide comments no later than January 22, 2021 by 4:00pm, Washington, DC time via email to Leah Leach at lleach@usaid.gov. While there is no limit on the length of submissions, we value concise, issue-specific comments with reference to page and section numbers in the draft design document. The CETC Innovation Lab funding opportunity will be issued at a later date and will be announced on the Grants website at https://www.grants.gov (anticipated in February 2021). All interested parties must respond to that notice of funding opportunity announcement separately from any response to this draft announcement. One award is anticipated, but USAID reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted in response to the NOFO. Following the posting of the NOFO, USAID will host a Q&A webinar approximately two weeks after the date of posting.

USAID seeks feedback in particular on the following questions:

1. Are the theory of change and programmatic objectives clear and realistic? How could they be improved?
2. Does the draft Program Description (Section A.IV) provide potential implementers with sufficient information and guidance about USAID’s overall objectives and expectations?
3. How can USAID and partners work more effectively with local actors and institutions to achieve meaningful sustainable progress?

Issuance of this pre-notice of funding opportunity request for comments does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. Government nor does it commit the U.S. Government to pay for any costs incurred in order to prepare response to this Pre-Notice.

This United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) Draft Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is issued for the purpose of providing stakeholders and potential partners an opportunity to review, comment, suggest, and enhance areas in the attached Draft NOFO for a new global activity: Feed the Future (FTF) Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats to Crops (CETC), which aims to design, lead, and implement a research program focused on the control of current and emerging biotic threats to food security crops that the poor depend on. 

Please provide comments no later than January 22, 2021 by 4:00pm, Washington, DC time via email to Leah Leach at lleach@usaid.gov. While there is no limit on the length of submissions, we value concise, issue-specific comments with reference to page and section numbers in the draft design document. The CETC Innovation Lab funding opportunity will be issued at a later date and will be announced on the Grants website at https://www.grants.gov (anticipated in February 2021). All interested parties must respond to that notice of funding opportunity announcement separately from any response to this draft announcement. One award is anticipated, but USAID reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted in response to the NOFO. Following the posting of the NOFO, USAID will host a Q&A webinar approximately two weeks after the date of posting.

USAID seeks feedback in particular on the following questions:

1. Are the theory of change and programmatic objectives clear and realistic? How could they be improved?
2. Does the draft Program Description (Section A.IV) provide potential implementers with sufficient information and guidance about USAID’s overall objectives and expectations?
3. How can USAID and partners work more effectively with local actors and institutions to achieve meaningful sustainable progress?

Issuance of this pre-notice of funding opportunity request for comments does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. Government nor does it commit the U.S. Government to pay for any costs incurred in order to prepare response to this Pre-Notice.