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food and nutrition assistance programs:
FANRP research funding opportunities

2004 awards logo.FANRP 2004 Awards—FANRP's Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program made awards in fiscal 2004 to fund research on strengthening economic incentives in food assistance programs; food assistance as a safety net; and obesity, diet quality, and health outcomes. A press release, descriptions of the projects and awards from previous years are also available.

2003 Final Report coverFood Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Final Report: Fiscal 2003 Activities—Provides an overview of FANRP's research themes, principles, and activities and describes the objectives of individual research projects.

Although the deadline for proposals for FANRP's Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program has passed, the publication Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process, Fiscal 2004, and the Budget form ARS-455 remain on the site for reference.

To meet the programmatic needs of USDA and to promote research from a broad arena, FANRP uses a variety of funding mechanisms for its extramural research.

Contracts are used when a very specific product is required, such as compliance with a Congressional mandate. When the intent is to stimulate new and innovative research or to conduct projects jointly with ERS researchers, FANRP uses its Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program or its Small Grants Program.

Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program
This program awards grants and cooperative agreements between $100,000 and $300,000. The program is publicly announced and competitively awarded through the use of peer review panels.

The Priority Research Areas identified for fiscal 2004 are:

  • Strengthening economic incentives in food assistance programs
  • Food assistance as a safety net
  • Obesity, diet quality, and health outcomes

Small Grants Program
The Small Grants Program seeks to stimulate new and innovative research on food assistance and nutrition issues and to broaden the participation of social science scholars in these issues. Small grants last for 1 year; most are in the range of $20,000 to $40,000. The program is funded by ERS and is administered through selected universities and their associated research institutes located at five sites. The five institutions administer the application and peer review processes. Each of the institutions takes a different aspect of food assistance, nutrition, or subgroup of recipients as its primary focus.

For details about the individual programs, visit the institutions listed below:

Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi State University focuses on food assistance effects on rural people, families, and communities in the South. The Center has also initiated a dialogue among scholars by establishing a Rural South Food Assistance Research Task Force.

The American Indian Studies Program, University of Arizona is working with scholars at tribal colleges and elsewhere to support research on the unique issues and problems of Native Americans with respect to food assistance. Their small grants program focuses on the relationship between food assistance programs on reservations and family poverty.

Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin focuses its research on the effects of food assistance on individual and family well-being and food security.

The Joint Center for Poverty Research, University of Chicago and Northwestern University focuses on interactions between food assistance and other welfare programs and linkages between the macroeconomy and food assistance.

Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis focuses research on the impact of food assistance programs on nutritional risk indicators (anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, and dietary), food purchasing practices, and food insecurity. This program encourages examinations of multiple indicators of nutrition impact and interdisciplinary approaches that integrate epidemiology, economics, or anthropology with nutrition.

 

for more information, contact: Victor Oliveira
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: October 14, 2004

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Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP)

FANRP project descriptions

FANRP research funding opportunities

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