Announcement for Program Funding for NRCS’ Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2018 – Iowa | USDA NRCS IA CIG 18 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS IA CIG 18 01

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) opened a fiscal year 2018 Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) competition for projects to be carried out in Iowa. The basic goal of this program is to move conservation forward by testing, proving, and helping people adopt new ideas and tools that improve natural resources while still supporting agricultural production. NRCS frames CIG as a way to push promising, practical innovations from the concept stage into real-world use, especially where traditional approaches are not yet widely adopted or where new systems could deliver better outcomes for soil, water, air, habitat, or related resource concerns.

For this Iowa-specific opportunity, NRCS set aside up to $500,000 total for awards during FY 2018, with an expected number of roughly six grants. Individual awards could be as large as $75,000, and projects could run from one to three years. The funding instrument is a grant, and the program falls under CFDA 10.912. As a discretionary funding opportunity, proposals compete against each other, and selections are made based on the merit and fit of the proposed work.

Eligibility is broad: the competition is open to non-federal entities and to individuals, with the key restriction that federal agencies themselves cannot apply. In practice, this means many kinds of applicants can participate if they have the capacity to manage a grant and deliver a credible project, such as universities, nonprofits, local units of government, producer groups, businesses, and independent researchers, as long as the work will be conducted in Iowa and aligns with the program purpose.

NRCS emphasizes that CIG is meant to produce results that can be used beyond the life of the grant. Projects are expected to support the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, or innovative approaches to agricultural producers, to NRCS technical references (like manuals and guides), or into broader private-sector use. The program is especially oriented toward work that can be demonstrated and replicated, not just studied in isolation. That is why typical CIG projects include pilot efforts, field demonstrations, and on-farm conservation research that provides actionable evidence about what works, how it works, and what it costs to implement.

The announcement also clarifies what NRCS means by on-farm conservation research. It is applied research designed to answer a specific conservation question using a statistically valid approach, carried out with farm-scale equipment on working lands such as farms, ranches, or private forestland. In other words, this is not just small-plot experimentation; it is research done under real operating conditions so the findings are relevant to producers and can inform adoption at scale.

Key administrative details included the opportunity number (USDA NRCS IA CIG 18 01), an original posting date of March 30, 2018, and an application deadline of May 29, 2018. Overall, the Iowa FY 2018 CIG competition was positioned as a relatively small, targeted funding pool intended to spark practical conservation innovation, generate field-tested results, and help those results move quickly into day-to-day agricultural practice or formal conservation guidance.

• The Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture, environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Announcement for Program Funding for NRCS’ Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2018 – Iowa" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.912.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 30, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 29, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $75,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for USDA NRCS IA CIG 18 01

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