Federal Grant Award Summary

Alabama A&M University received a $600,000 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) under the 1890 Institution Capacity Building Grants Program (CFDA 10.216), effective June 1, 2026 through May 31, 2030. The award supports an integrated education and research initiative designed to enhance forestry workforce development by preparing students for careers in forest science and related fields. Primary deliverables include the development and delivery of data science training programs in forest habitat analysis, focusing on emerging techniques such as forest inventories, dendrochronology, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), optical remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based analysis, and advanced data science applications.

The project provides six students per year with spring semester internship preparation followed by summer research internships, leveraging Alabama A&M's research site within the Smithsonian Institution's Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) Network. Students receive hands-on instruction in field data collection methodologies—including tree measurements, dendrochronological sampling, terrestrial LiDAR, and hyperspectral imaging—combined with analytical training in remote sensing data processing and interpretation. The initiative includes collaborative partnerships with five major research institutions: Jones Center at Ichauway, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, The Nature Conservancy, Harvard Forest, and Smithsonian Institution. The research component focuses on developing integrated forest demographic analysis tools through tree-level sampling and large-scale image analysis to advance understanding of forest architecture.