University Of California Office Of The President

The University of California Office of the President, Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources (UC ANR) is a unit of the University of California system operating as a federal grant recipient and sub-recipient, delivering applied research, extension education, and technical assistance in agriculture, natural resources, and food systems to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and related federal agencies. UC ANR does not hold federal service contracts and does not operate as a prime contractor on federal procurements; it functions exclusively in the federal grant space and as a research-focused sub-award participant.

UC ANR's federal footprint centers on USDA grant programs. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) dominates its customer base, with 237 awards accounting for the plurality of recent activity. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the Forest Service R5–Pacific Southwest Region, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) round out the top USDA funders, together representing 73 percent of award count. Beyond USDA, UC ANR receives grants from the National Institutes of Health (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases), the U.S. Geological Survey, the Economic Development Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Forest Service. Recent prime grant awards include a $20.6 million economic-adjustment-assistance grant from the Department of Commerce (CFDA 11.307) awarded October 1, 2022, to establish iCreate, an ag-tech hub accelerating technology transfer between UC researchers and farmers in California's Central Valley; a $588,000 AFRI project grant from NIFA (CFDA 10.310) awarded August 1, 2025, to develop water use curves for drought-resistant silage sorghum in southwestern agricultural regions; a $398,016 food-safety-outreach grant from NIFA (CFDA 10.328) awarded September 15, 2025, supporting a three-state food hub capacity-building initiative spanning California, Oregon, and Vermont; and a $189,000 project grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (CFDA 93.837) awarded September 1, 2026, to examine California's Senate Bill 291 recess mandate and its effects on student cardiometabolic fitness.

UC ANR's work spans agricultural research, food safety compliance, pest and disease management, wildfire resilience, water conservation and irrigation efficiency, climate-smart agriculture, STEM education pipelines, and extension programming for small and historically underrepresented farmers. The Division operates UC Cooperative Extension, a statewide network delivering bilingual technical assistance, workshops, webinars, and educational resources to growers and ranchers. Representative programs include the Western Integrated Pest Management Center (a multi-state coordination hub funded through NIFA), the UC Organic Agriculture Institute supporting organic transition and mentorship, the California Center for Food Safety coordinating statewide produce-safety compliance efforts, and specialized initiatives addressing sudden oak death, invasive forest pests, virtual fencing for grazing management, and prescribed fire workforce development.

Activity has remained relatively stable, with 16 awards in 2022 through 23 awards in 2024, then declining to 13 in 2025 and 7 in the first nine months of 2026. Seventeen awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing potential recompete exposure. UC ANR operates primarily as a prime recipient (92 percent of awards), with sub-recipient participation (8 percent) concentrated in projects led by peer universities and state agencies, including the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Stanford University, and the University of Hawaii. The Division's statewide extension infrastructure and research capacity position it as a primary hub for USDA outreach programming in California, particularly on food safety, integrated pest management, water sustainability, and agricultural workforce development.