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USDA is responsible for ensuring a safe, healthy, abundant, and affordable
food and fiber supply, while sustaining and enhancing the resource base.
Over the last decade, USDA has faced challenges in the areas of water
quality, biodiversity, and pest and disease control that have required
new approaches to food production and renewable natural resource management.
In response to these changing needs, opportunities have surfaced in new
uses for agricultural and forestry products, biofuels and biomass energy,
and recycling technologies.
Types of Environment and Natural Resources Research Supported
- Global Change: USDA focuses on understanding atmosphere/biosphere
gas and energy exchange, altered carbon storage, effects of increased
incidence of fire, insect and disease disturbance in forest ecosystems
resulting from global change, and the response of terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems to physical and chemical changes in the atmosphere.
- Biodiversity and Ecosystems: USDA supports research
to understand how community composition and structure relate to function
and sustainability. Specific research needs are to understand the interaction
of the biological community, including its environment, and to identify
sustainable management practices for forest, range, crop, and aquatic
ecosystems.
- Toxic Substances/Wastes: USDA conducts and supports
research on alternatives to chemical pesticides, such as crop rotations,
and residue and waste management. This is part of USDA's larger Integrated
Pest Management (IPM) initiative to develop environmentally benign methods
to control pests and reduce pesticide risks.
- Water Resources: USDA research is designed to improve
watershed management systems and to reduce nonpoint source pollution
due to the use of pesticides and fertilizers.
- Air Quality: Research focuses on technologies that
reduce and control airborne particles from soil and fires, and fire
safety. USDA also supports management research to help mitigate natural
disaster repercussions.
Research Funding Opportunities
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES)
Two competitive grants within CSREES relate directly to the environment
and natural resources:
- The National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program (NRICGP)
: Grant opportunities exist for research in soils and soil biology,
and in water resources assessment and protection. Soils and soil biology
grants support research on chemical, physical, and biological processes
in soils and sediments; water resources assessment and protection grants
support basic, applied, and developmental research to assess, manage,
or improve the quality and/or nature of water resources linked to agriculture
or forestry. An announcement of research opportunities is issued annually
as a program booklet (including directions on how to apply for funding)
shortly after the beginning of each fiscal year.
Contacts:
Tim Strickland/Soils and Soil Biology Program
202.401.4082 (voice)
Berlie Schmidt/Water Resources Program
202.401.4504 (voice)
- Water Quality Special Research Grant Program : This program
supports soil and water research, focusing on systems to prevent pollution
or remediating problem areas on a watershed scale. Collaboration between
agencies and involvement with investigators with expertise in a variety
of disciplines is expected. An RFP is issued in the Federal Register,
and proposals are accepted for a limited time.
Contacts:
Maurice Horton/Water Quality Special Research Grant Program
202.401.4971 (voice)
Berlie Schmidt/Water Resources Program
202.401.4504 (voice)
Forest Service
The Forest Service supports research to develop scientific information
and technology needed to protect, manage, use, and sustain the Nation's
1.6 billion acres of public and private forest and rangelands.
The Forest Service conducts research through a network of seven regional
Forest Experiment Stations, a national Forest Products Laboratory, and
the International Institute of Tropical Forestry. Approximately 600 research
scientists, supported by over 2,000 staff, are organized into Research
Work Units at 70 locations. Programs are organized under four broad research
areas, each of which includes several activity categories:
- Vegetation Management and Protection : This activity involves
long-term studies of management practices; alternative management for
major forest types; growth, yield, and cultural practice; cost reduction
and environmental impact of forest operations; and ways to reduce the
impacts of unwanted fires, insects, and diseases. Categories requiring
attention include fundamental plant sciences, silvicultural applications,
quantitative analysis of forest vegetation, rangeland ecology, forest
operations, insect ecology, and prevention and control of insects and
diseases.
- Wildlife, Fish, Water, and Air Sciences : This activity involves
research to increase understanding of organisms, ecosystems, and ecological
processes. General areas of high-priority research include the analysis
of watershed processes and functions; the analysis of freshwater aquatic
communities and habitat; the effects of management on habitat condition
for recovery of threatened, endangered, and sensitive plant and animal
species; ecosystem response to atmospheric factors such as temperature,
precipitation, and chemical composition; and analysis and restoration
of riparian communities. Activity categories within this area include
wildlife habitat, aquatic habitat, watershed, and atmospheric sciences.
- Resource Valuation and Use : Research is supported to assess
the conditions, trends, and capability of forest and rangeland resources;
to estimate current and anticipated demands for these resources; and
to integrate social, economic, and biological factors to ensure sustainability
of the natural resource while meeting people's needs. Activity categories
within this area include renewable resources economics; urban forestry;
wilderness, recreation, and cultural heritage resources; and forest
product use and safety.
- Resources Inventory and Monitoring : The Forest Service conducts
a Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program to periodically quantify
the timber supply and the status of forests across all land ownership
in the U.S. Activity categories within this area include forest inventory
and analysis, forest health monitoring, and inventory and monitoring
techniques.
- Global Change Research : The Forest Service is an integral
participant in the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Forest Service
research efforts relative to global change are highly integrated and
consist of a broad spectrum of studies relating to forest and range
ecosystems.
In FY95, the Forest Service provided $25.8 million to support 963 grants,
cooperative agreements, and contracts to colleges, universities, States,
and other research organizations. In addition, grants and agreements totaling
$3.5 million were awarded for studies under the global change program.
Cooperative agreements are used to form partnerships to more efficiently
conduct mission-related research. These agreements are generally determined
on a scientist-to-scientist basis where funding, need, and expertise co-
exist. Cooperative agreements are intended to complement internal Forest
Service research efforts, with funding generally deployed for short-term
studies and to acquire specific expertise or resources. Cooperators must
submit progress reports, approval of which is usually a condition for
continued funding. Funding decisions are made by Research Work Unit Project
Leaders in coordination with Forest Experiment Station headquarters.
Research grants and contracts are solicited on a competitive basis. Funding
decisions are made by Forest Service scientists and Experiment Station
management in accordance with applicable regulations.
Formal RFPs are issued annually for targeted research on the global change
issue. The request for and competitive selection of research proposals
is coordinated nationally, but RFPs are issued separately for the northeast,
southeast, southwest, and northwest regions of the country.
Information on cooperative agreements, grants, and contracts, as well
as the Forest Service Global Change program can be obtained by contacting
any of the following stations:
Intermountain Research Station
Federal Building
324 5th Street
Ogden, UT 84401
801.625.5412 (voice)
North Central Forest Experiment Station
1992 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
612.649.5000 (voice)
Northeastern Forest Experiment Station
5 Radnor Corp. Center, Suite 200
P.O. Box 6775
Radnor, PA 19087-4585
610.975.4222 (voice)
Pacific Northwest Research Station
333 S.W. 1st Avenue
P.O. Box 3890
Portland, OR 97208
503.326.3592 (voice)
Pacific Southwest Forest and Range
Experiment Station
800 Buchanan Street, West Bldg.
Albany, CA 94710
510.559.6300 (voice)
Rocky Mountain Forest and Range
Experiment Station
240 West Prospect Road
Fort Collins. CO 80526-2098
970.498.1100 (voice)
Southern Research Station
P.O. Box 2680
Asheville, NC 28802
704.257.4300 (voice)
Forest Products Laboratory
One Gifford Pinchot Drive
Madison, WI 53705-2398
608.231.9200 (voice)
International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Call Box 25000
UPR Experimental Station Grounds
Rio Piedras, PR 00928-2500
Agricultural Research Service
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) mission is to provide access
to agricultural information and to develop new knowledge and technology
needed to solve technical agricultural problems of broad scope and high
national priority to ensure adequate availability of high-quality, safe
food and other agricultural products to meet the nutritional needs of
the American consumer; to sustain a viable and competitive food and agricultural
economy; to enhance quality of life and economic opportunity for rural
citizens and society as a whole; and to maintain a quality environment
and natural resource base.
ARS serves a multitude of customers and stakeholders, including USDA
and Congress. Within USDA, ARS serves the Secretary of Agriculture, operating
as the Department's research arm to respond to the Nation's critical agricultural
challenges. ARS scientists, technicians, and support personnel in laboratories
strategically located throughout the country are at the disposal of the
Secretary to investigate and solve technical problems that face American
agriculture today.
ARS frequently establishes partnerships with companies and other institutions
to develop new technologies through Cooperative Research and Development
Agreements (CRADAs) and patent licenses. These cooperative endeavors have
dramatically speeded commercialization of agricultural technologies. Approximately
550 CRADAs have been set up with industry to date; some of these have
already led to new commercial products and processes. Under these agreements,
industry provides marketing information essential for the successful commercialization
of the product/process, and other information to help guide ARS research.
In turn, the first right to an exclusive license on the product/process
emerging from the agreement is awarded to the industry partner.
Nearly 200 licenses of ARS-developed technologies are currently in place.
These primarily involve licenses to industry to make, use, and sell ARS-
patented products/processes. Patents are an important component of USDA's
technology transfer program. ARS typically receives 50 to 60 patents each
year; it has received more than 1,200 patents since 1970.
ARS technology transfer has had a positive impact on small and rural
businesses. In keeping with the intent of the Federal Technology Transfer
Act of 1986, ARS gives first preference to exclusive licenses of its technology
to small businesses, many of which are in rural agricultural locations.
More than half of ARS' current licenses and CRADAs are with small, rural,
and/or minority- or women-owned businesses. More than 50 small and/or
rural companies were created based on patented ARS technologies.
Contact:
Richard Parry/ARS Office of Technology Transfer
202.720.3973 (voice)
202.720.7549 (fax)
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