The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) within the United States Department of Agriculture awarded a $609,290 Project Grant to the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program (CFDA 10.310). The four-year project will study the long-term, multigenerational impact of two agriculturally relevant metal oxide nanoparticles—zinc oxide and copper oxide nanoparticles and their transformed products—on...
This $748,835 project grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA #10.310) will fund research into developing novel nano-enabled fertilizers to address challenges in sustainable global food production. The University of Texas at El Paso will explore using nanoscale manganese and iron species as fertilizers, with the goal of substantially improving crop yields beyond...
The Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station was awarded a $636,646 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program. The grant will fund research to develop a novel and sustainable nanoparticle platform for delivering effective and prolonged supplies of double-stranded RNA molecules in plants. Specifically, the Station will synthesize three...
This Project Grant award, valued at $300,000.00, was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) program. The project aims to explore the use of zinc oxide nanoparticles as a novel approach to manage and mitigate the effects of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on agricultural crops, specifically alfalfa. The research will systematically assess how these...
This $544,943 project grant awarded by the Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.310 - Agriculture and Food Research Initiative) will enable The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) to investigate the effects of metal oxide nanoparticles on soil nitrification processes. The research will examine the physiological, transcriptional, and metabolic responses of nitrifying bacteria to zinc oxide and copper oxide nanoparticles, as well as their bulk...
This three-year Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program will fund $608,676 to the University of Florida's Division of Sponsored Research to investigate the impacts of nanomaterials on soil and water microbiomes and pathogen persistence in agrifood systems. The University will synthesize and characterize twenty types of monodisperse nanomaterials and study...
The University of Connecticut (UConn) was awarded a $610,999 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant aims to develop a sensor using molecularly imprinted Janus gold nanoparticles for quick, sensitive, and simple in-field detection of pesticides. This technology will leverage an innovative molecular imprinting process and signal amplification strategy...
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...
The Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station was awarded a $819,300 project grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The grant will fund research to identify which plant-beneficial bacteria are enriched or defended by different protists, and to understand the bacterial genes and functions involved in cooperating with or defending against protists. The...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), will provide $620,599 to the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (Tees) to investigate the behavior of cyclodextrin-based nanopesticides in agricultural settings. The research will use experimental and computational approaches to examine how these nano-based pesticides aggregate, transport, and adsorb to materials like silica and cellulose. The goal is to generate fundamental...