Hispanic Serving Institutions Education Grants

The HSI program aims to attract outstanding students and produce graduates capable of enhancing the Nation's food and agricultural scientific and professional workforce. Grants under this program will be awarded to: (1) support the activities of

To award grants to Hispanic-serving Institutions for the purpose of promoting and strengthening the ability of Hispanic-serving institutions to carry out education, applied research, and related community development programs in the food and agricultural sciences.

Hispanic serving institutions are eligible to receive funds under this program. "Hispanic serving institutions" means an institution of higher education which, at the time of application, has an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students, and which (1) admits as regular students only persons having a certificate of graduation from a school providing secondary education, or the recognized equivalent of such certificate; (2) is a public or other nonprofit institutions accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting body; and (3) is legally authorized to provide a program of education beyond the secondary level for which a 2-year associate, baccalaureate, or higher degree is awarded. Applications may be submitted by, and awards may only be made to, public or other non-profit Hispanic-Serving Institutions as defined in the definitions section of this solicitation.

Minority group Graduate Student Spanish Origin State Public nonprofit institution/organization Other public institution/organization Applications may only be submitted by Hispanic-Serving Institutions. To be considered an HSI, institutions must have a minimum of 25 percent undergraduate full-time Hispanic enrollment. Failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the application deadline may result in the application being excluded from consideration and, even though an application may be reviewed, will preclude NIFA from making an award.

Funds may be used to support one or more of the following target areas or additional target areas as identified in the annual program announcement: Curricula design; materials development; library resources; faculty preparation and enhancement for teaching; instruction delivery systems; scientific instrumentation for teaching; student experiential learning; and student recruitment and retention.

In accordance with statutory time limits, project periods, including no-cost extensions of time, are not to exceed five (5) years. Further details are provided in the Award document Form NIFA-2009 and the NIFA General Terms and Conditions Grants and Cooperative Agreements.

All NOFOs are published on the NIFA website and Grants.gov. Applicants must complete the SAM.gov and Grants.gov registration process prior to applying. See the program NOFO for any program specific pre-application requirements.

NIFA evaluates each application in a two-part process. First, each application is reviewed to ensure that it meets the administrative requirements set forth in the NOFO. Second, a peer-review process will be used to evaluate the scientific and technical merit of applications that have meet the administrative requirements. After each peer review panel has completed deliberations, the responsible NIFA program staff will either recommend an application for support from available funds or decline an application due to insufficient funds or unfavorable review.

Within the limit of funds authorized, the NIFA awarding official will make grants to eligible applicants whose applications are judged most meritorious under the procedures set forth in this NOFO. After the award is finalized, a formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA), signed by the Authorized Departmental Officer, will be provided to the applicant organization for successful applications. The NoA is the authorizing document and will be sent via email to the recipient's Authorized Representative and it provides pertinent instructions and information about the award. The NoA will provide pertinent instructions and information including, at a minimum, the information described in 2 CFR 200.211 (see NIFA's Terms and Conditions).

From 30 to 60 days. Contact the National Program Leader (NPL) regarding dates for specific deadlines, start and end dates, and range of approval/disapproval time. SPECIAL NOTE: Please refer to the Competitive Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) for further specific and pertinent details. The most current NOFO is available via: https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/hispanic-serving-institutions-education-grants-program-hsi