Deadline: 26-Sep-21
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces that the Rural Business-Cooperative Service (Agency) is accepting fiscal year (FY) 2021 applications for the Agriculture Innovation Demonstration Center (AIC) program to provide grants to Agriculture Innovation Centers that will provide technical assistance to agricultural producers to market value-added agricultural products.
The purpose of this program is to establish and operate Agriculture Innovation Centers (Centers) that provide technical and business development assistance to agricultural producers seeking to engage in the marketing or the production of ValueAdded products.
The Agriculture Innovation Center Program makes grants to Agriculture Innovation Centers that may be used by the Centers to provide technical assistance to agricultural producers to help them develop and market value-added agricultural products using a variety of options, except joint marketing efforts.
Funding Information
- Total Funding: $7,392,479
- Minimum Award: $400,000
- Maximum Award: $1,000,000
- Project Period: 2 years
How may funds be used?
Grant and matching funds may be used to operate an Agriculture Innovation Center and to provide the following services to agricultural producers:
- Financial advisory services related to the development, expansion, or operation of a business owned by an agricultural producer;
- Process development services, such as engineering services, scale production assessments, and systems development;
- Organizational assistance, including legal and technical advisory services;
- Outreach assistance; and
- Technical assistance for product development (excluding research and development).
Eligibility Criteria
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- For profit organizations other than small businesses
- State governments
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Private institutions of higher education
- Small businesses
- County governments
- City or township governments
- Public bodies, Federally-Recognized Indian Tribes, institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations and for-profit corporations.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=334366