Project Grant W911SR2510001

This $649,972 federal Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program supports the development of textile coating systems that incorporate biobased insect repellents. The grantee, Insectapel LLC, is a for-profit limited liability company focused on creating innovative, environmentally-friendly alternatives to synthetic chemical insect repellents. The research aims to leverage...

Novoclade, Inc. received a $181,500 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The funding supports the development of an innovative insect control method using genetically engineered sterile male Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) flies. Novoclade's approach aims to simplify the implementation of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) for SWD, a major agricultural pest causing an...

This Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research (BRAG) program (CFDA 10.219) provides $649,414 to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to develop tools and technologies for monitoring and improving the use of precision-guided sterile insect technique (PGSIT) and other CRISPR-based genetic technologies to control the spotted wing drosophila pest. Key deliverables include: A diagnostic system called...

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025) provides $216,700.00 to North Carolina State University to advance research on integrated pest management, genetic control technology, surveillance technology, and regulatory entomology for several invasive insect species. The key activities include supporting the evaluation of...

This federal Project Grant award, provided through the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants Program (CFDA 10.219) administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA), focuses on researching the dispersal characteristics of genetically engineered (GE) sterile male Spotted-Wing Drosophila (SWD) flies. The $649,809 award to Oregon State University aims to investigate the scale and dynamics of PGSIT-SWD dispersal, comparing the...

This Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program provides $750,000 to the Regents of the University of California at Riverside to develop novel insecticidal proteins derived from insect-parasitic nematodes. The goal is to characterize these toxins and assess their efficacy in controlling insect pests in agricultural systems, either through transgenic crops or foliar application. This...

This federal Project Grant award, provided by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Crop Protection and Pest Management (CPPM) Competitive Grants Program (CFDA 10.329), will fund research to develop yeast-based RNA interference (RNAi) pesticides targeting the invasive spotted-wing drosophila (SWD) pest. The $325,000 award to Michigan State University aims to create a new class of stakeholder-accepted, species-specific insecticides that can be deployed as baits or...

Lepidext, Inc. was awarded a $100,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program (CFDA 10.212) to further develop an agent with potential to actively suppress populations of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) resistant pest insects. The SBIR/STTR programs support scientific excellence and technological innovation through federal...

This Project Grant award, totaling $1,435,198 and awarded on December 15, 2024 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) under the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (CFDA 10.309), aims to develop technologies to kill the Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) and prevent the spread of Huanglongbing (HLB) disease in citrus crops. The key objectives are to: 1) Define the toxicity and anti-feeding activity of potassium channel inhibitors against ACP through...

This Project Grant award of $799,976, funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) CFDA 10.310 program, aims to improve border biosecurity for two important stored product quarantine pests, the Khapra beetle and Larger Grain Borer. The key objectives are to: (1) optimize sulfuryl fluoride application and other emerging fumigation technologies, (2) upgrade and tailor enhanced bio-surveillance systems for real-time...