Northeast SARE Professional Development Grant Program

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Opens August 1, 2021

About

The Northeast SARE Professional Development Grant Program funds train-the-trainer projects that develop the knowledge, awareness, skills and attitudes among the full range of service providers who work with farmers, including agricultural professionals who teach, advise and assist farmers about sustainable agriculture practices and strategies as well as non-agricultural service providers (e.g., attorneys, lenders, etc.) that work with farmers. These service providers then use the knowledge, awareness, skills and attitudes they gain in their work with farmers.

Eligibility

Professional Development Grants are open to agricultural service providers, including personnel at colleges and universities, Cooperative Extension, agricultural and community nonprofit organizations, municipalities, state departments of agriculture, federal agencies like NRCS, for-profit entities (such as private consultants, veterinary practices and other businesses that serve the farming community), and others who work with service providers.

Northeast SARE encourages projects submitted from or in collaboration with Minority Serving Institutions (including 1890s and other historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions and tribal colleges and universities) and other organizations in the Northeast region that work with socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Your organization must have the legal structure and financial capacity in place to receive and execute a Northeast SARE contract, including expending funds needed for the project prior to receiving reimbursements from Northeast SARE; advance payments are not possible.

Projects must take place within the Northeast region, which includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

Northeast SARE will not fund proposals that appear to duplicate work that has been approved for funding by another grant program (within or external to SARE).

Terms

Funding requests should align with project duration, scope of the work, and intensity of interaction with beneficiaries. Amounts higher than the typical range will be considered for projects that include multi-disciplinary or multi-institutional education networks, especially when those networks enable a more comprehensive systems approach to addressing challenges or opportunities.

Typical project length is 2 to 3 years. The maximum project length allowed is 3.5 years.