The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) is now accepting nominations for the 2024 New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award. FFAR intends to grant up to 10 awards to early-career scientists pursuing research that supports FFAR’s Research Priority Areas and promotes global, sustainable food production. Each applicant is eligible to receive up to $150,000 per year for a maximum of three years totaling $450,000. FFAR does not require awardees to secure matching funds.

Often early-career scientists struggle to secure grant funding at the onset of their careers. The New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award provides grantees the opportunity to focus exclusively on research without the pressure to secure additional funding for these ideas. This award provides early-career scientists with the investment needed to bolster their successful careers in food and agriculture. FFAR awards this unique grant to highly creative, promising scientists whose research has the potential to address major challenges facing food and agriculture.

FFAR evaluates eligible nominees to select diverse, collaborative, innovative and outside-the-box perspectives that will have a substantive impact on tackling today's challenges in food and agriculture. The deadline for submitting nominations is February 21 at 5 p.m. ET. Complete submission guidelines and program deadlines are available on the FFAR website.

Institutions of higher education, nonprofit research institutions and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are encouraged to nominate one applicant who holds a tenure-track or equivalent position and meets the eligibility criteria specified in the Call for Nominations. FFAR also highly encourages applications from Hispanic-serving institutions, 1890s Land-Grant Institutions and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions.