Deadline: 06-Jul-21
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the University of Florida (UF) Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) funds to establish the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems (LSIL) and to act as its Management Entity (ME) have announced a request for applications for the Research and Capacity Building in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nepal, Niger, and Rwanda.
The research for development priorities for all target countries were developed based on Phase I research findings and stakeholder consultations between September 2020 and March 2021.
Themes
The minimum requirements for all Cross-cutting Themes (CCTs) must be addressed, and one should be addressed meaningfully.
The Areas of Inquiry & Cross-Cutting Themes:
- Livestock Production & Disease Management
- Human Health, Food Safety, Diets and Nutrition
- Markets and Innovation Translation
- Local Capacity Development
- Gender and Youth
- Future Livestock Systems & Resilience
- Enabling Environment
Vision and Objectives
The vision of LSIL is to sustainably intensify smallholder livestock systems to improve the nutrition, health, livelihoods, and incomes of vulnerable people. This vision is achieved through research, technology application, capacity building, and knowledge generation.
The objectives of LSIL are to:
- sustainably improve livestock productivity and marketing and ASF consumption using appropriate improved technologies, capacity development, and policy advocacy;
- increase the resilience of vulnerable populations;
- reduce the environmental impact of livestock systems; and
- advance the understanding of evolving livestock systems and their roles in food security, nutrition, and health.
Phases
In Phase I, LSIL research led to innovative strategies to:
- improve livestock feeds and feeding;
- increase ASF consumption;
- improve livestock disease surveillance and mitigation;
- strengthen markets;
- improve food safety;
- foster a conducive livestock policy environment; and
- model effects of externalities on livestock systems in the future.
In Phase II, LSIL will continue working in these areas, with a stronger emphasis on improving resilience of vulnerable people, increasing dietary diversity and adequacy with ASF by reducing ASF production costs, increasing ASF safety, improving ASF markets, and reducing barriers to ASF consumption.
Type of Projects
The following types of projects will be funded:
- LSIL Reach projects: These are longer term, large grants issued as subawards to the lead organization for projects lasting up to three years with budgets of up to $750,000. Reach projects will commonly involve multiple partners and employ an integrated, interdisciplinary approach involving both research and capacity development components; however, the primary focus should be on research. The minimum requirements for all Cross-cutting Themes (CCTs) described below must be addressed, and one should be addressed meaningfully.
- LSIL Focus projects: These are shorter term, smaller grants issued as subawards to the lead organization for projects lasting up to a year and a half with budgets up to $125,000. Focus projects should address a proof of concept or conduct research for development bridging studies that will yield near-term beneficial impacts. Focus projects should focus on at least one AOI and one or more CCTs.
Geographical Focus
- This RFA focuses on Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nepal, Niger, and Rwanda.
Eligibility Criteria
- This competition is open to any qualified research, educational, governmental, private sector, or nonprofit organization that either has or that collaborates with an organization that has a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS number) and is registered in the System for Award Management (SAM).
- They strongly encourage proposals from and collaboration with U.S. Minority-Serving Institutions. These include, but are not limited to, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Predominantly Black Institutions, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Asian American, Native Alaskan, and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions.
- For proposals selected for funding, UF will establish a subaward with the lead organization in the applying consortium, which will coordinate all activities in the target country, including execution of appropriate agreements with all collaborating partner(s). They encourage, but do not require, target country organizations to be the lead organization. If requested, UF can issue a separate subaward directly to a US or international sub-partner organization when a target country organization is the prime or lead member of the applying consortium. However, the limit of direct subaward contracts per project from UF is two.
- The lead organization is responsible for implementing the project, monitoring progress, ensuring compliance with UF and USAID rules and guidelines, managing funds appropriately, collating and presenting results, and submitting progress and final reports. The lead organization will be responsible for fulfilling all USAID requirements and submitting data and reports to the ME. This includes responsibilities related to Monitoring and Evaluation, Open Data Management, Knowledge Sharing, and Environmental Management and Mitigation measures. The lead organization will also need to ensure compliance with the Branding Strategy and Marking Plan of the LSIL. The ME will provide oversight to the lead organization, and through it to its subawardees, on matters that are technical (e.g., by giving feedback on work plans and progress reports, and by monitoring ongoing field and other activities), administrative (e.g., verifying quality of reporting), and financial (e.g., reviewing financial reports, and giving approvals for procurement and travel).
For more information, visit https://livestocklab.ifas.ufl.edu/rfa/