Title 7

SECTION 3430.303

3430.303 Eligibility.

§ 3430.303 Eligibility.

(a) General. Unless otherwise specified in the RFA or this subpart, eligible applicants for the grant program implemented under this subpart include:

(1) State agricultural experiment stations;

(2) Colleges and universities (including junior colleges offering an associate's degree);

(3) University research foundations;

(4) Other research institutions and organizations;

(5) Federal agencies;

(6) National laboratories;

(7) Private organizations or corporations;

(8) Individuals; and

(9) Any group consisting of 2 or more entities identified in paragraphs (a)(1) through (8) of this section.

(b) Integrated projects. Eligible entities for the integrated component under this subpart include:

(1) Colleges and universities;

(2) 1994 Institutions; and

(3) Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and universities (as defined in section 1404 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3103).

(c) FASE Grants - (1) New investigator awards. To be eligible to apply, a new investigator must be in the beginning of his/her career, without an extensive publication record, and must have less than 5 years of postgraduate, career-track experience. To be eligible to receive a grant, the new investigator may not have received competitively awarded Federal funds, with the exception of pre- or postdoctoral awards or NRI/AFRI Seed Grants. The AFRI RFA will contain specific instructions for New Investigator Grant eligibility, restrictions, and application preparation.

(2) Pre- and postdoctoral fellowships. The following eligibility requirements apply to applicants for pre- and postdoctoral fellowships.

(i) The doctoral degree of the applicant must be received not earlier than January 1 of the calendar year three years prior to the submission of the proposal and not later than nine months after the proposal due date; and

(ii) For pre-doctoral applications, the applicant must have advanced to candidacy by the application deadline.

(3) Strengthening grants. Eligibility for all strengthening categories includes:

(i) Small and mid-sized academic institutions that have had limited institutional success;

(ii) Degree-granting institutions and State agricultural experiment stations (SAES) in USDA Experimental Program for Stimulating Competitive Research (EPSCoR) states; and

(iii) Minority-serving institutions with limited institutional success.

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