Sustainable Agriculture Graduate Student Grants
The student must be officially registered as a graduate student or resident (according to his or her institution's requirements) at the time the project begins. Previous recipients are ineligible.
NCR-SARE funds Graduate Student grants in Sustainable Agriculture for projects that address sustainable agriculture issues and are part of the student's degree program. NCR-SARE instituted the Graduate Student grant program in 2002 for officially registered graduate students (Masters and Ph.D.) enrolled at accredited colleges or universities. Projects must benefit agriculture in the North Central Region. NCR-SARE strengthens rural communities, increases farmer/rancher profitability, and improves the environment by supporting research and education.
The five main components of your proposal are:
- Cover Page, one page maximum, including personal and advisor contact information, project title, start date, and duration, and total budget request;
- Abstract, one half page maximum;
- Plan of Work, three pages maximum, including project title, short- and long-term outcomes, background, lit review, method, outputs, and criteria for evaluation;
- Budget, one page maximum, broken down into major categories; and
- Appendices, outlined in application information packet.
Eight stapled paper copies of the proposal and cover letter (if a cover letter is included; cover letters are not required) must be received in the NCR-SARE office in Lincoln, Nebraska before 4:30 p.m. CST.
Submit one electronic copy of the proposal in a word processing format as an e-mail attachment sent to ncrsare@unl.edu or on a diskette included with the paper copies of your proposal.
Funds may not be used for tuition, overhead costs, school books, permanent capital improvements (e.g. land, buildings, etc), or printing/copying of a thesis or final project paper.
The North Central Region consists of: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
A student is allowed to receive only one NCR-SARE Graduate Student grant during her or his student career. The student must be officially registered as a graduate student or resident (according to his or her institution’s requirements) at the time the project begins.
The funding level for 2011 is dependent upon appropriations from Congress and decisions by the NCR-SARE Administrative Council, but we anticipate that roughly $150,000 will be available to fund about 15 grant projects. Individual grants, which will not exceed $10,000 for the total grant period, will be available for projects lasting up to three years (36 months). In 2010, 15 projects were selected for funding with an average grant size of $9763 and durations ranging from 4 to 36 months.