The goal of the Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative Extension Disaster Education Network (FADI-EDEN) program is to maximize the resilience of the U.S. food and agriculture sector to biosecurity risks, extreme weather events and disasters, cyber threats, and other shocks. It is necessary to mitigate threats to sustain the overall competitiveness of U.S. agriculture to maintain an abundant food supply for people and livestock, to support the farmers, ranchers and workers who drive the U.S. food and agriculture sector, and to sustain the vitality of rural communities, rural and urban agriculture infrastructure, and agricultural businesses.
The FADI-EDEN program will fund one Extension project that will address its priorities. The amount available in FY 2023 is approximately $382,400 that will be provided on a continuation basis for a total of four years (FY 2024, FY 2025, and FY 2026) based on the availability of funding in subsequent years and on annual satisfactory performance of the project.
Deadline: May 11, 2023
The FADI-EDEN program will fund one Extension project that will address the following priorities:
1. Foster interdisciplinary and multi-state education and outreach programs by addressing phases of biosecurity disasters and extreme weather events and disasters and actions carried out by cyber threat actors that can escalate biosecurity risks. Education and outreach activities include trainings, exercises, and curriculum or resource development.
2. Build and/or enhance strategic partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies, organizations, and networks within the realms of biosecurity and disasters that include but are not limited to the National Animal Health Laboratory (NAHLN); the National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN); Federal Emergency Support Function #11/USDA APHIS, and the Food & Agriculture Sector Councils. Identify ways to incorporate Cooperative Extension into response frameworks at the local, state, and national levels.
3. Support collaboration among state Cooperative Extension organizations by providing strategic administrative leadership to improve information exchange and outreach opportunities focused on disasters within the Network. Engage with the 1890 EDEN advisory group, 1994 Tribal Colleges and universities, and Sea Grant institutions.
4. Facilitate coordination within the Network, including with the EDEN officers, EDEN executive committee, and USDA NIFA, to support, where appropriate, operations and the Network’s 2023-2025 strategic plan, programmatic goals, impact reporting, and incident response. Develop and sustain methods that include a Network website to communicate with stakeholders and increase their awareness about the Network and provide educational resources to Cooperative Extension organizations and stakeholders.
Behavioral education and promotion of biosecurity and disaster education is important in planning for individual and community resiliency. Incorporation of social and behavioral sciences is key for addressing many of the challenges facing communities. Effective non-formal outreach programs and services in social and behavioral sciences can provide timely and adequate information to communities that lead to behavior change. Proposed projects are encouraged to include activities that integrate social and behavioral sciences in program design, implementation, and evaluation. Extension professionals and other relevant partners can employ these programs and services to sustain disaster education activities that successfully protect and enhance biosecurity, vitality, and resiliency of communities.
In accordance with section 1472(c) of NARETPA, applicants may be: State agricultural experiment stations, State cooperative extension services, all colleges and universities, other research or education institutions and organizations, Federal and private agencies and organizations, individuals, and any other contractor or recipient, either foreign or domestic, to further research, extension, or teaching programs in the food and agricultural sciences of the Department of Agriculture. Failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the application deadline may result in the application being excluded from consideration or, even though an application may be reviewed, will preclude NIFA from making an award.
The amount available for the FADI-EDEN program in FY 2023 is approximately $382,400, with an annual renewal for a total of four years (FY 2024, FY 2025, and FY 2026) based on availability of funding in subsequent years and satisfactory performance of the project.
Duplicate or Multiple Submissions – submissions of duplicate or predominantly overlapping applications is not allowed. NIFA will disqualify both applications if an applicant submits multiple applications that are duplicative or substantially overlapping to NIFA programs within the same fiscal year.
