Louisiana Conservation Innovation Grants FY 2017 | USDA NRCS LA CIG 17 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS LA CIG 17 01

The Louisiana Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) FY 2017 opportunity is a competitive grant program run through USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that is meant to speed up the real-world use of practical, innovative conservation methods in Louisiana. The core idea is to help producers and partners adopt conservation approaches and technologies that improve natural resources (like soil, water, air, and habitat) while still supporting agricultural production. Rather than paying for basic or exploratory research, this program is geared toward applying, demonstrating, and scaling conservation solutions that have already shown promise, so they can be adopted more widely and, ideally, incorporated into NRCS technical guidance (such as manuals and field office tools) or moved effectively into private-sector use.

Projects supported under this grant are expected to be hands-on and field-focused, such as pilot projects, on-the-ground demonstrations, and implementation efforts that show how a proven practice or emerging strategy can work at farm or landscape scale. The program emphasizes technology transfer and adoption: applicants should be able to explain how their work will move knowledge, tools, management systems, or market-based approaches into broader use, not just prove a concept in isolation. A major theme is leveraging federal investment, meaning NRCS wants projects that make conservation spending go further by pairing environmental benefits with workable agricultural outcomes and by encouraging collaboration among communities, government entities, and institutions so that conservation innovations are accessible to more users.

CIG generally does not fund research, but it makes a specific exception for on-farm conservation research. In this context, on-farm research is narrowly defined: it must be designed to answer a specific conservation-related question using a statistically valid approach, include an appropriate number of replications, and analyze results with proper statistical methods. It also needs to be conducted using farm-scale equipment on actual farm fields. Even when research is allowed under this exception, NRCS frames it as research that directly stimulates innovative natural resource management in conjunction with agricultural production, not academic or laboratory research that is disconnected from practical adoption.

The competition is open to eligible applicants located in Louisiana, and projects may be single-year or multi-year, with a maximum project period of up to three years. Eligible entities are broad and include federally recognized Native American tribal governments, state and local governments (including counties, cities/townships, and special districts), public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (other than universities), individuals, for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other for-profits). The funding instrument is a discretionary grant, and the activity area is natural resources under CFDA 10.912.

For FY 2017, the notice lists an award ceiling of $100,000 per award and anticipates making about two awards. The opportunity was posted on January 3, 2017, with an original application deadline of March 3, 2017. Applications are screened first for completeness and compliance with the solicitation requirements; incomplete or noncompliant submissions are removed from consideration and applicants are notified. Proposals that pass screening are then scored by a technical peer review panel using the evaluation criteria described in the solicitation (referenced as Section V.B.). After peer review, proposals and reviews move to the Louisiana Review Board, which makes recommendations to the NRCS State Conservationist in Louisiana, who makes the final funding selections.

In practical terms, a strong proposal for this program would clearly describe a proven or near-ready conservation innovation, explain how the project will demonstrate it under Louisiana conditions, identify measurable resource and production outcomes, and lay out a credible plan for adoption and technology transfer beyond the project sites. It would also show why the approach is innovative in application or delivery (including potential market-based mechanisms), how partners will share skills and resources, and how results will be packaged so NRCS field staff, producers, and other stakeholders can actually use what the project produces.

• The Department of Agriculture, Washington State Office in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Louisiana Conservation Innovation Grants FY 2017" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.912.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 03, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 03, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for USDA NRCS LA CIG 17 01

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: