The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR)
seeks nominations for its 2025 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research
Award (NIA). With this program, FFAR intends to support and promote the future
generation of exceptionally talented and creative new faculty who are
conducting critical and highly innovative research and are establishing
research programs that will lead to expanded availability of food and
facilitate the global practice of sustainable agriculture as the world’s population
grows to more than nine billion people by the year 2050.

The New Innovator Award seeks to promote career
advancement of highly creative and promising new scientists who intend to make
a long-term career commitment to research in food and agriculture and bring
innovative, ground-breaking research initiatives and thinking to bear on problems
facing food and agriculture. Within the scope of the New Innovator Program, investigators
will have the freedom to explore new avenues of inquiry that arise during their
research. Therefore, FFAR is interested in the program of research to be
explored and its impact as opposed to a list of very specific aims.

Eligible Individuals

Faculty members at eligible institutions with the
creative ideas, skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the
proposed research program as Principal

Investigator are invited to work with their institution
to develop an application for support.

• The nominated faculty member must have been hired on or
  after August 1, 2021, for a tenure-track or equivalent position and may work in
  any discipline or any department within the institution.
• 
  
  Preference will be given to individuals near the onset
  of their independent research career and who are within eight (8) years of
  receiving a Ph.D. or equivalent degree.
• 
  
  Individuals with significant research experience prior
  to obtaining their faculty position will not be considered for this award. For
  the purpose of this funding opportunity, significant research experience is
  defined as a nominee that has been awarded a substantial research grant (three
  to five years of support) or has received project funding totaling over $1M
  within the time of their tenure position or has been awarded similar career
  development awards with similar budgetary scopes.
• 
  
  This research concept must directly benefit U.S.
  agricultural interests. FFAR recognizes that agriculture and food sciences are
  highly complex, requiring individuals from a variety of disciplines to realize
  the potential in each field or research area. Particularly for early-stage
  investigators, collaborators are often essential for success. While this award
  is given to an outstanding early career investigator, applicants should include
  information regarding any essential collaborators and include letters of
  support from those collaborators. In these letters, the collaborators should comment
  on the potential of the individual to achieve success.