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3 Value of the AFRI Program
Pages 43-78

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From page 43...
... The chapter also describes the evolution of USDA's flagship competitive grants program, discusses the aspirations for AFRI, and describes the scope and structure of and funding for the program and 43
From page 44...
... . A peer-review competitive grants program was proposed as a means of moving a publicly funded agricultural research portfolio toward the more basic end of the R&D spectrum.2 A 1989 National Research Council report stated that "there is ample justification for increased allocations for the [competitive]
From page 45...
... , the competitive granting mechanism initiated by the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 (1977 Farm Bill) , was established to support fundamental research, but grants awarded through CRGO represented only about 5% of total USDA research expenditures (see Table 3-1)
From page 46...
... Authorized Funding Funding Competitive Research Grants Office 1977 25 15 60.0 3.3 2.4 1978 30 15 50.0 3.0 2.2 1979 35 15.5 44.3 2.7 2.1 1980 40 16 40.0 2.6 1.9 1981 50 17 34.0 2.5 1.8 1982 50 17 34.0 2.3 1.6 1983 50 17 34.0 2.2 1.6 1984 50 17 34.0 2.2 1.5 1985 50 46 92.0 5.8 3.7 1986 70 48.8 70.0 6.1 3.6 1987 70 40.6 58.0 5.1 2.8 1988 70 42.4 60.6 5.1 2.8 1989 70 39.7 56.7 4.4 2.4 1990 70 43.1 61.6 4.6 2.4 National Research Initiative 1991 150 73 48.7 7.3 3.9 1992 275 97.50 35.5 9.0 5.0 1993 350 97.50 27.9 8.6 4.9 1994 400 112.20 28.1 9.5 5.3 1995 500 101 20.2 8.4 4.6
From page 47...
... 1996 500 94 18.8 8.0 4.3 1997 500 94 18.8 7.9 4.2 1998 500 97 19.4 8.1 4.1 1999 500 119 23.8 9.5 4.8 2000 500 119 23.8 8.9 4.5 2001 500 106 21.2 7.0 3.8 2002 500 120 24.0 7.1 4.0 2003 500 166 33.2 9.4 5.4 2004 500 164 32.8 8.8 5.2 2005 500 180 36.0 9.4 5.4 2006 500 215 43.0 11.2 6.3 2007 500 190 38.0 9.8 5.5 2008 500 190 38.0 9.6 5.2 Fund for Rural Americaa 1996 100 80 80.0 6.8 3.6 1997 100 80 80.0 6.7 3.5 1998 100 80 80.0 6.7 3.4 1999 100 60 60.0 4.8 2.4 Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS) b 1999 120 120 100.0 9.5 4.9 2000 120 120 100.0 8.9 4.6 2001 120 -- -- c 2002 120 -- -- c continued 47
From page 48...
... Authorized Funding Funding Agriculture and Food Research Initiative d 2008 700 190 27.1 9.6 5.2 2009 700 201 28.7 10.2 5.5 2010 700 262.50 37.5 2011 700 264.50 37.8 2012 700 266 38.0 2013 700 277 39.6 2014 700 291 41.6 NOTE: Total USDA funding is the sum of Cooperative State Research, Extension, and Education Service–administered funds and other USDA funds and intramural USDA funding. Total public funding consists of total research spending by the state agricultural experiment stations (SAESs)
From page 49...
... as a competitive grants program for research, extension, and education to address a 3  ere, the USDA funding total was estimated as the total of USDA intramural research H spending and federal funding to USDA that is used to conduct research in the state agricultural experiment stations and other cooperating institutions.
From page 50...
... The REE Task Force report envisioned a strengthened and increased competitive grants program in USDA and new (as opposed to reallocated) funds to expand competitive, fundamental research but in a strengthened science-based culture in USDA.
From page 51...
... . The CREATE-21 report, which openly supported the REE Task Force report, made the case for increased competitive funding, repair of and improvement in the infrastructure of universities and institutions that do agricultural research, and strengthening of the organizational structure of competitive formula-based and intramural research programs of USDA.
From page 52...
... The ownership of fundamental science associated with food and agriculture; its translation, extension, and dissemination; and the training of scientists by AFRI fit into that model. Scope of the AFRI Program AFRI encompasses some elements of the NRI, the competitive funding component of the Fund for Rural America, and IFAFS (Table 3-2)
From page 53...
... The mechanisms should include -- Committees of scientists who apply rigorous scientific merit review to all proposals. -- A standing council of advisers to ensure the relevance and importance of the science that the competitive grants program funds.
From page 54...
... 54 SPURRING INNOVATION IN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE TABLE 3-2  Characteristics of Competitive Grants Programs in USDA CRGO NRI Charge Supporting fundamental Funding research, education, research in food and and extension activities agriculture to address key problems of national and regional importance in biological, environmental, physical, and social sciences relevant to agriculture, food, the environment, and communities on a peer-reviewed, competitive basis Program areas • Plant sciences • Plant systems • Pest science • Animal systems • Animal sciences • Nutrition, food quality, • Biotechnology and health • Human nutrition • Natural resources and the • Wood science and forest environment biology • Engineering, products, and processes • Markets, trade, and policy Years in operation 1977–1990 1991–2008 Number of awards per year 193–455 298–832
From page 55...
... VALUE OF THE AFRI PROGRAM 55 Fund for Rural America IFAFS AFRI Program partly for funding Funding research, Funding research, education, competitive research extension, and education and extension grants and to develop knowledge- to address a number integrated research, extension, based solutions for rural of critical emerging and education grants that economic development agricultural issues related address key problems of to food production, national, regional, and environmental quality, multistate importance in natural-resource sustaining all components of management, and farm agriculture, including farm income efficiency and profitability, ranching, renewable energy, forestry (both urban and agroforestry) , aquaculture, rural communities and entrepreneurship, human nutrition, food safety, biotechnology, and conventional breeding • Increasing international • Agricultural genome • Plant health and competitiveness, • Food safety, food production and plant efficiency, and farm technology, and human products profitability nutrition • Animal health and • Reducing economic • New and alternative production and animal and health risks uses and production products • Conserving and of agricultural • Food safety, nutrition, and enhancing natural commodities and health resources products • Renewable energy, • Developing new • Agricultural natural resources, and crops, new crop uses, biotechnology environment and new agricultural • Natural-resource • Agriculture systems and applications of management, including technology biotechnology precision agriculture • Agriculture economics and • Enhancing animal • Farm efficiency and rural communities agricultural resources profitability, including • Preserving plant and the viability and animal germplasm competitiveness of • Increasing economic small- and medium-size opportunities in dairy, livestock, crop, farming and rural and other commodity communities operations • Expanding locally owned value-added processing 1997–2002 1999–2002 2009 to present 254–470 continued
From page 56...
... The reintegration of subdisciplines in biology and the collaboration between biologists and scientists and engineers in other disciplines purposefully organized to address specific societal challenges could result in significant advances, perhaps in unexpected directions. Another National Research Council report, Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century, discussed the added value of an integrative, distinct, interdisciplinary approach to research in agriculture (NRC, 2010)
From page 57...
... agriculture Outcome-driven Outcome-driven and investigator-initiated According to the New Biology report, there are four goals within which an integrative approach could make a substantial contribution: • "Developing plants that could be sustainably produced for food in changing environments." • "Understanding and maintaining ecosystem function and biodiversity under rapidly changing conditions." • "Developing sustainable sources of bioenergy and biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuels." • "Understanding individual health." NIFA integrated the four goals from the New Biology report and six priority areas from the 2008 Farm Bill, and transformed them into the following five challenge areas in AFRI's requests for proposals (USDA-NIFA, 2010)
From page 58...
... In accordance with the 2008 Farm Bill, AFRI also provides strengthening grants to State Agricultural Experiment Stations (SAESs) or degree-granting institutions that are eligible for USDA Experi
From page 59...
... The agency partnerships offer a way for NIFA and USDA in general to use the AFRI program to leverage their interests with other resources. Funding Over Time Although the 2008 Farm Bill authorized $700 million to be appropriated for each of the fiscal years 2008–2012 to carry out AFRI's sponsored programs, appropriated funding has not reached that level since AFRI's inception (Figure 3-2)
From page 60...
... ROLE OF COMPETITIVE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS FOR RESEARCH, EDUCATION, AND EXTENSION In reviewing the various reports from 2004 to 2013 that described grand challenges in food and agriculture (USDA-REE Task Force, 2004; APLU, 2006; NRC, 2009; CAST, 2010; PCAST, 2012; GAO, 2013)
From page 61...
... , NIFA funds extramural research, extension, and education, and ARS conducts intramural research.5 The competitive grant is the predominant form of public-sector research support in many health and basic science and engineering grants programs6 where the application of research results is not constrained by geographic factors. Historically, competitive grants have been less common for agricultural research in the United States and in other countries.
From page 62...
... 0 0 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 Y ear FIGURE 3-4  Competitive funding for U.S. agricultural research, 1979–2007.
From page 63...
... Agencies have developed different ways to optimize the competitive grants mechanism for supporting extramural, investigator-initiated research. NSF focuses on basic research, which it defines as "systematic study toward fuller knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications towards processes or products in mind" (NSF, 2014)
From page 64...
... • The conduct of research and extension activities by experiment station–supported faculty and staff. 9  n addition to AFRI, NIFA funds competitive grant programs for specific targets, for exam I ple, the Small Business Innovation Research Program and Specialty Crop Research Initiative.
From page 65...
... . Research funded by AFRI is not intended to compete with formula funding or with intramural research done within ARS, and the national program leaders of NIFA manage both AFRI and formula grants.
From page 66...
... NSF has played a key leadership role in the multiagency Plant Genome Research Program that was initiated in 1998 as part of the National Plant Genome Initiative. Some of the core NIH extramural funding programs in nutrition, obesity, and genetics in humans and animal models may fund projects conducted by agricultural researchers addressing important issues relevant to food and agriculture, but the mission focus of the agency is human health (NIH, 2011)
From page 67...
... . Of all the federal agency grants programs, AFRI is the only one that focuses exclusively on food and agriculture and its components, including agricultural plant and animal systems; human nutrition; such natural resources as aquaculture and forestry; environmental issues associated with agricultural ecosystems and engineering associated with these topics; rural economies, markets, trade, and policy; and families, youth, and communities.
From page 68...
... 81-507) a • Basic Research to and the Smithsonian Enable Agricultural Institution Development (BREAD)
From page 69...
... NIH To seek fundamental knowledge Nutrition and human • Core programs in • Ecology and Evolution about the nature and behavior of health and animal health nutrition and obesity of Infectious Diseases; living systems and the application research other partner of that knowledge to enhance • Core programs in agencies are NSF and health, lengthen life, and reduce research on animal Biotechnology and the burdens of illness and models, resources, Biological Sciences disability genetics, and health Research Council of the United Kingdom DOE To ensure America's security Bioenergy, renewable • Bioenergy research • Plant Feedstock and prosperity by addressing energy, and energy centers (DOE, 2013a) Genomics for Bioenergy its energy, environmental, and efficiency nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutionsc EPA To protect human health and the Impact of agriculture on • Nanotechnology • None environment natural resources and the environment continued 69
From page 70...
... TABLE 3-3 Continued 70 Examples of Areas Examples of Extramural Relevant Research Programs Relevant Examples of Interagency Agency Mission Statementb to Agriculture to Agriculture Programs with AFRIc NASA • Aeronautics: to solve the Agricultural impact of • Earth-science research • Carbon cycle science; challenges that still exist in natural and human- • Land-cover and land-use other partner agency is our nation's air transportation induced changes in the changes NOAA system: air traffic congestion, water and energy cycle, • Carbon cycle and safety, and environmental effects of agriculture ecosystems (NASA, impacts on carbon cycle, and 2013) • Human Exploration and agricultural land-use and Operations: to operate land-cover changes the International Space Station operations, develop commercial spaceflight opportunities, and conduct human exploration beyond low Earth orbit • Science: to explore the Earth, solar system, and universe beyond; chart the best route of discovery; and reap the benefits of Earth and space exploration for society • Space Technology: to develop, demonstrate, and infuse revolutionary, high-payoff technologies that expand the boundaries of the aerospace enterprise
From page 71...
... , USAID (only international food and agricultural development) , Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
From page 72...
... USDA continuously seeks opportunities for partnering with the other mission agencies whereby joint competitive grants programs can advance agricultural research (USDA-NIFA, 2013a)
From page 73...
... Compared with the NRI, there has been a modest increase in resources, yet AFRI has the more ambitious mandate of addressing agricultural issues through research, extension, and education while integrating multiple disciplines, and this has strained the program. AFRI funds extramural research that complements ARS's intramural research, with the latter supporting long-term, high-risk or high-priority projects that are not amenable to short-term competitive grant cycles.
From page 74...
... Past performance of the food and agricultural public sectors indicates that results of research, education, and extension supported by AFRI drive the bioeconomy forward, strengthen and enhance the food system, contribute to global economic development, and improve nutrition and the environment. As previously mentioned, the committee's observations are based on the legislative and administrative language used in the inauguration and management of the research programs examined.
From page 75...
... Finding 3-2: Even though the dollar amount for the AFRI program has remained constant, the number of proposals submitted and the number of awards made have declined. Finding 3-3: Interagency leveraging of resources in agriculture and food could be more strategic, more robust, and better co ordinated across federal agencies.
From page 76...
... 2002. National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program Annual Report Fiscal Year 2002.
From page 77...
... 2005. National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program Annual Report Fiscal Year 2005.


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