Higher Education Challenge Grants Program

by: Iola Bonggay

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, more commonly referred to as NIFA, is a United States federal government agency operating under the Department of Agriculture that is primarily responsible for consolidating all federally-funded agricultural research studies.

The establishment of NIFA was mandated under the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 in an attempt to initiate and enable technological innovations that have the potential to improve American agriculture, thus make it more productive, environmentally sustainable, and economically viable.

In accordance with this mission, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture has recently constituted the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program in an attempt to boost and enhance the quality of formal, postsecondary-level agricultural sciences education.

The projects that will be funded under this program are those that mean to work towards ensuring a competent, eligible, and diverse system that would be beneficial to the food and agricultural sciences industry.

In that context, the National Institute Food and Agriculture also wants the proposed projects to achieve the following goals:

a) Substantially increase the number of students who are willing to pursue and complete a postsecondary degree in the food and agricultural sciences.

  (continued...)

Higher Education Challenge Grants Program
  Page 2

About The Author Iola Bonggay is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants.com one the the most comprehensive Websites offering information on government grants and federal government programs. She also maintains Websites providing resources on environmental grants and grants for youth programs.

Additional Resources

category - Education Grants

Pell Grants - Help with Financing Your Education
The Federal Pell Grant Program is overseen by the Department of Education and falls under the Federal Student Aid Information Center. In order to be eligible students must be enrolled in eligible schools that may be public or private nonprofit institutions of higher education.

---

What does it mean that Federal Student Aid is a PBO?
A PBO is a Performance Based Organization representing an initiative that was created in order to help the government operate more effectively and efficiently. When people call Federal Student Aid a PBO, this means that they are committed to and hold the same standards of the Performance Based Organization.

---

SMART Grants - Educational Grants for the Student of Math, Science and Languages
National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grants assist those undergraduate postsecondary students that major in foreign languages or certain designated technical fields. Financial grant assistance is provided on need-basis to help these students meet their educational expenses.

---

Computing Education Grants Program for the 21st Century
The National Science Foundation has recently established the Computing Education Grants Program for the 21st Century (CE21), wherein the agency primarily aims to create a robust computing research community, as well as a computationally competent 21st century workforce, and ultimately, a computationally empowered citizenry.

---