Project Grant 201233610195511

This $300,000 award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) will fund the development and field testing of elite poplar tree varieties with reduced lignin content for more sustainable and efficient wood fiber production. The project aims to establish a short-rotation agroforestry system utilizing these genetically engineered poplar trees with enhanced traits for increased pulp yield and reduced carbon...

This Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is supporting Poplar Innovations Inc. in developing improved hybrid poplar varieties for the bioeconomy. The $175,000 award, provided from August 2025 to April 2026, aims to breed new hybrid poplar strains that maintain high biomass productivity while also demonstrating durable resistance to a recent outbreak of Melampsora...

This federal Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.212 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program) provides $174,929 to Poplar Innovations Inc., a small disadvantaged business, to develop endophyte-mediated disease resistance technology to combat pathogens affecting hybrid poplar, a key cellulosic feedstock for the bioeconomy. The objectives are to: 1) identify...

This $649,929 federal Project Grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program will fund research at the University of Maryland, College Park to investigate the molecular and genetic basis of seasonal nitrogen cycling in poplar trees. The research aims to advance understanding of how perennial plants like trees efficiently acquire and utilize nitrogen, which is a critical nutrient for plant growth and productivity....

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the United States Department of Agriculture awarded a $799,988 Project Grant to the University of Florida's Division of Sponsored Research under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program (CFDA #10.310). The grant aims to improve climate resilience and preserve productivity in loblolly pine plantations, the most economically important timber species in the Southeastern U.S., which are threatened by more frequent...

This $100,000 Project Grant award, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology under the Biological Sciences CFDA program, will support research to improve the representation of plants in ecosystem models. The key products and services to be delivered under this 3-year award include: Investigating methods to estimate plant traits using evolutionary histories to improve the parameterization of vegetation hydraulic traits in hydrologic and ecosystem models....

This $600,969 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.310 - Agriculture and Food Research Initiative) supports the development of an "Electroponics" system for the precision delivery of water and agrichemicals to crops. The project aims to address challenges posed by climate change and population growth, including water scarcity and inefficient agrichemical application, through an interdisciplinary...

This Project Grant award, valued at $650,000 and awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, aims to empirically assess the importance and sustainability of adaptive irrigation under climate change. The three key objectives are: 1) estimating the link between extreme heat and adaptive irrigation, 2) predicting groundwater stock dynamics under climate change, and 3) analyzing...

The Bureau of Reclamation's Applied Science Grants program awarded a $531,965 Project Grant to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in partnership with the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. The project aims to analyze the potential for replacing invasive, exotic riparian vegetation species (tamarisk and Russian olive) with native plant communities as a strategy for reducing water...

The University of California, Riverside received a $180,000 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The three-year award will support research examining the genetic regulatory networks controlling the development of suberized transport barriers in rice root cells, which show plasticity in response to water stress. Understanding these networks...