National Institute of Food and Agriculture

What this funds

National Institute of Food and Agriculture Activities In 2025 NIFA began the third and final phase of onboarding to the electronic Research Administration (eRA) grants management system. Phase three includes configuring eRA for NIFA's use, enhancing eRA's functionality to meet NIFA's needs, launching pilot programs to validate system configurations and train internal and external stakeholders, and establishing a direct system-to-system financial interface between eRA and the USDA financial system Financial Management Modernization Initiative (FMMI). The phased transition approach is migrating competitive programs in 2026-2027 and formula programs in 2027-2028 (pending system enhancements). Progress in 2025 has kept NIFA on track to complete system enhancements, expand pilot programs, and finish the financial interface leading up to full eRA implementation by the end of 2027. The adoption of the eRA system is allowing a more streamlined Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) approval process providing benefits for other stakeholders such as the Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area, the USDA Office of the Chief Financial Officer, and the Office of Budget and Program Analysis. Previously, this was a manual process of emailing the NOFO document from approver to approver, but now this can be easily done within the eRA system, increasing efficiency and improving tracking. Automated, in-system revisions and approvals are recorded from start to finish, allowing unprecedented transparency and oversight of NOFO approvals and publication. Another significant milestone is NIFA's coordination with National Institutes of Health-eRA, USDA- OCFO, and the Treasury-Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP) system, which has led to development of a financial interface between eRA and the USDA financial system, FMMI. This one- time project will increase the efficiency and accuracy of NIFA's financial processes and allow other USDA agencies to more easily transition to eRA because the financial integration will already be The Grants Quality Service Management Office (Grants QSMO) leads the effort for government-wide adoption of federal shared services for grants management. The Grants QSMO recognized NIFA as "the gold standard" in grants system adoption and invited NIFA to present January 27th, 2026, at their government-wide Customer Migration Workshop in Washington, D.C. planned for 2026. NIFA will share experiences, best practices, lessons learned, and be used as a case study of successful shared Federally Funded Research Generating Economic Value in the U.S. Marketplace 401.16), and the Utilization report under EO 14104 Sec 4(h) NIFA incentivizes innovation, collaboration and further technology transfer and commercialization encouraging protection of all intellectual property (IP) generated with USDA NIFA funding. NIFA awardees are encouraged to seek and elect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for their inventions generated with NIFA funding. All recipients of NIFA funding agreements are required to report all subject inventions, patents, Plant Variety Protection Certificates, and unpatented biological material or research tools using iEdison, the USDA NIFA funding on iEdison. In the first year of reporting, NIFA received over 2,468 Utilization reports, a higher-than-average completion rate of 89.91 percent. Grantees reported 221 new inventions, filed 257 new patent applications, and 44 patents were issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with 44 Plant Variety Protection certificates also reported. The utilization reports listed 658 inventions that were either commercialized (253) or licensed (409) and 1,557 listed inventions not yet commercialized or licensed. Out of the inventions not commercialized or licensed, 992 listed a commercialization plan. These reports identify that 69 percent are actively marketing or furthering development to attract commercial partners, 24 percent do not have a commercialization plan yet, and 1.41 percent are seeking additional funding. NIFA grantees reported that during 2024 they received $15.6 million derived from 4,099 licenses, with 44 percent going to small businesses, 42 percent non-exclusive, and 13 percent exclusive. They reported 99 products being manufactured or cultivated across 35 states (93.7 percent), Canada, and Chile. basil, poplar and ornamentals as well as animal health related products and diagnostics. Examples of awarded projects and derived commercialized products reported in 2024: Genetic Development, Evaluation, and Outreach for Establishing Hybrid Poplar Biomass Feedstock Plantations in the Midwestern United States awarded to the University of Minnesota - Duluth sought to leverage the extensive collection of Populus genetic material developed over several decades at the University of Minnesota Duluth - Natural Resources Research Institute to produce the next generation of genotypes for the Midwest. The university reported their distinct variety of male Populus tree named Poplar NextGen -InnovatreeTM grows 64 percent faster than leading commercial varieties, with commercial uses including, phytoremediation, biomass, pulp, and lumber products. The variety also provides good windbreaks, firewood, wildlife habitats, and privacy screening for landowners. Patent Development of Multipurpose Potato Cultivars with Enhanced Quality, Disease, and Pest Resistance and Potato Breeding and Variety Development in the North Central US: Enhancing Yield, Quality, and Resilience with New Technologies, both awarded to Michigan State University, and is a joint effort of the potato breeding and genetics programs at four North Central Land-grant Universities. This effort derived Polaris Gold, the yellow-fleshed tablestock cultivar is late-maturing, with round tubers and an established reputation for culinary versatility and excellent flavor. Seed growers and commercial producers have been planting Polaris Gold and describe the variety as being excellent for chips, home Dissection and Exploitation of Gene Networks to Improve Peanut Yield under Drought funded in part by AFRI, Auburn University in collaboration with the USDA ARS National Peanut Research Lab in Dawson, GA developed a high yield, drought tolerant and disease resistant peanut variety AU-NPL-17. This is the first runner-type cultivar released by the College of Agriculture's Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences and is well-adapted for growing conditions throughout the Southeast. Runner peanuts account for 80 percent of the peanuts grown in the United States, with AU-NPL-17 containing higher amounts of oleic acid, which is typically produced in peanuts grown in Argentina and Australia. This project provides economic value to U.S. growers.

Extracted from National Institute of Food and Agriculture, p. 42. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

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