Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE)
The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) (
https://www.sare.org/) program is a decentralized competitive grants and education program operating in every state and island protectorate. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture's
National Institute for Food and Agriculture, the program is run by
four regions (
North Central,
Northeast,
South and
West) hosted by land-grant institutions.
SARE Outreach provides communication and technical support at the national level.
West Virginia belongs to the Northeast region (
https://www.northeastsare.org) along with Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.
2024 Calls for Preproposals Now Available for Three Large Northeast SARE Grants
Three Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) programs are calling for preproposals. $5.9M in funding is available across the Research and Education, Research for Novel Approaches, and Professional Development grant programs. Preproposals are due August 6, 2024 by 5 p.m. EST.
Northeast SARE's Large Grant Preproposal Summaries
Learn the differences and similarities between Northeast SARE's three largest grant programs: Research and Education, Research for Novel Approaches, and Professional Development. In this recording, Northeast SARE staff will describe the Research & Education, Research for Novel Approaches, and Professional Development Grant programs. Meet the Grant Coordinators, find the best grant program to fit your project, learn about the components of a strong proposal, and learn how to apply by submitting the required preproposals. Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfZTu_5XTWY
Q&A Sessions will take place in June and July to help applicants determine which program is right for their project. These sessions are a great opportunity to build community understanding around Northeast SARE grant programs and procedures.
Register for the Q&A sessions.
The
Professional Development Grant program funds projects that develop the knowledge, awareness, skills and attitudes of agricultural and other service providers about sustainable agriculture practices to teach, advise or assist farmers. A service provider is a professional who assists farmers as part of their work. Projects that develop the ability of other service providers (for example, real estate agents, bankers, and attorneys) to work with farmers are also eligible. These service providers then use what they’ve learned through participation in project activities in their work with farmers.
The
Research and Education program funds projects that result in gains in farmer knowledge, awareness, skills, and attitudes that are then applied to make measurable on-farm changes leading to greater sustainability. The focus on farmer behavior change is a key requirement of this grant program. All proposals must include an education program for farmers that seeks to achieve a “performance target” that describes the changes in practices, behaviors or conditions among farmers expected to result from the proposed project. Proposals may be submitted with or without an applied research component supporting the education program.
The
Research for Novel Approaches program funds “proof of concept” applied research projects intended to confirm the benefits and/or feasibility of new practices and approaches that have high potential for adoption by farmers in the near future. These practices and approaches may be related to production, marketing, business management, human resource management and other social issues, or other topics related to sustainable agriculture.
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Northeast SARE’s Administrative Council has
approved a one-year pause in five of our seven regional grant programs. The purpose of the pause is to increase our capacity to work on implementation of Northeast SARE's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) strategic plan. Thus, while Northeast SARE offers a number of
grant programs to farmers, educators, researchers, nonprofits, and others who work with farmers we only have a few open this year. You can also search
SARE's national database for grant project results.
While the program operates regionally,
state programs deliver train-the-trainer programs locally and provide outreach in each Northeast state. West Virginia has two state coordinators,
Barbara Liedl at West Virginia State University and
Doolarie Singh-Knights at WVU.