Deadline: 5-May-23
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is soliciting applications for the Distance Education Grants (DEG) program to strengthen the capacity of Insular Area institutions to carry out distance food, agriculture, natural resources, and human science education programs (including, but not limited to, Traditional Ecological Knowledge) using network technologies.
Characteristics and Conditions
- Acquire the equipment, instrumentation, networking capability, hardware and software, digital network technology, and infrastructure necessary to teach students and teachers about technology to support distance education.
- Develop and enhance educational services (including faculty development) to prepare students or faculty seeking a degree or certificate that is approved by the state or a regional accrediting body recognized by the Secretary of Education.
- Provide teacher education, library and media specialist training, and preschool and teacher aid certification to individuals who seek to acquire or enhance technology skills in order to use technology in the classroom or instructional process.
- Implement a joint project to provide education regarding technology in the classroom with a local educational agency, community-based organization, national nonprofit organization, or business; or provide leadership development to administrators, board members, and faculty of eligible institutions with institutional responsibility for technology education.
Funding Information
- The amount available for the Distance Education Grants Program for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (DEG) in FY 2023 is approximately $800,000.
- Award Ceiling: $200,000
- Award Floor: $30,000
Eligible Projects
- Curricula Design, Materials Development, and Library Resources. To promote the development of distance education courses of study and degree programs, new and improved curricula, and instructional materials and technology. Also, to promote the acquisition of library resources including books and journals relating to the food and agricultural sciences; and stimulate the use of new approaches to the study of traditional subjects, new research on teaching and learning theory, and new applications of knowledge.
- Faculty Preparation and Enhancement for Teaching. To advance faculty development in the areas of teaching competency and leadership, subject matter expertise, or student recruitment and advising skills.
- Instruction Delivery Systems. The purpose of this initiative is to encourage the use of alternative methods of delivering instruction to enhance the quality, effectiveness, and cost efficiency of teaching programs. Focus should be on ways to maximize program quality, reduce duplication, and implementation of innovative instructional techniques, methodologies, and delivery systems in response to advances in knowledge and technology.
- Additional Information. The use of students for only routine office, laboratory, or fieldwork is not considered education for the purposes of this program. To be considered as education related, students will need to be actively engaged in the scholarship of research activities.
- Expected Products and Results. The DEG program requires all project directors to provide appropriate metrics and describe the expected products and results, outcomes, and their potential impact on strengthening food, agricultural, natural resources, and human sciences education, research, and extension in the United States. Metrics to assess products, outputs, and outcomes are to be clearly delineated in the proposal.
- Incorporation of Social Sciences and Enhancing Impacts. The DEG program supports social and behavioral science disciplines. DEG projects that integrate social and biological sciences to provide experiential learning opportunities for students in applied research, and related community development programs are encouraged. Incorporation of social and behavioral sciences is important for addressing many of the challenges facing agriculture and rural communities, such as increasing global demand for food production in the face of limited natural resources; improving health and reducing obesity by engaging in heathy lifestyles and consuming heathy diets; and alleviating poverty by fostering economic opportunity
Location
- The eight insular areas are as follows:
- American Samoa
- The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
- The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
- The Federated States of Micronesia
- Guam
- The Republic of the Marshall Islands
- The Republic of Palau
- The Virgin Islands of the United States
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants for the Distance Education Grants Program for Institutions of Higher Education in Insular Areas (DEG) must meet all the requirements.
- Institutions receiving a grant under this program are eligible to receive DEG grants in subsequent years.
- Individual Institutions. For the purposes of the DEG grant program, an eligible institution is an institution of higher education that is located in an insular area and that has a demonstrable capacity to carry out teaching and extension programs in the food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences. All public or non-profit 2-year and 4-year accredited institutions of higher education that offer certificate/degree programs in food and agricultural sciences are eligible. Individual land-grant colleges and universities, and other institutions that have secured land-grant status through Federal legislation, and which are located in insular areas are automatically eligible for awards under the DEG grant program as direct individual applicants.
- Branch Institutions of a State System. Individual branches of a state university system or public system of higher education that are separately accredited as degree-granting institutions are treated as separate, individual institutions eligible to apply for and receive awards.
- Independent Branch Campuses. Independent branch campuses of individual institutions may apply for and receive grant awards.
- Certification of Eligibility. At the time of application, each primary applicant will be required to demonstrate or certify that it is an eligible institution. The AR must also certify that the institution, or parent institution in the case of an independent branch campus:
- Admits as regular students only persons having a certificate of graduation from a school providing secondary education, or the recognized equivalent of such a certificate.
- Is legally authorized by the Insular Area in which it is located to provide a program of education beyond secondary education.
- Provides an educational program for which the institution awards a bachelor’s degree or provides not less than a two-year program that is acceptable for full credit toward such a degree.
- Is a public or other nonprofit institution; and is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association, or if not so accredited, is an institution that has been granted pre-accreditation status by such an agency or association that has been recognized by the Secretary for the granting of pre-accreditation status, and the Secretary has determined that there is satisfactory assurance that the institution will meet the accreditation standards of such an agency or association within a reasonable time.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.