USDA Just Posted a $30.6 Million HSI Grant Program While the Education Department's Is Frozen in Court
September 13, 2026 · 8 min read
Granted Research Team · Editorial policy
Two federal agencies run Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant programs built on the same statutory definition. One of them has been effectively frozen since late 2025, with the Justice Department telling Congress it would not defend the program's constitutionality. The other posted a $30.6 million competition on September 10, 2026.
That second one is USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and its Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program — funding opportunity USDA-NIFA-HSI-011903, Assistance Listing 10.223 — closes December 3, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
For eligible institutions, this is the largest open HSI-designated competition in the federal government right now. It is also a program whose design has quietly shifted in ways that reward first-time applicants and punish institutions that flood the pool.
The numbers
NIFA anticipates $30,600,000 with an award range of $25,000 to $1,200,000, across 40 anticipated awards:
| Grant type | Minimum | Maximum | Anticipated awards | Project period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $200,000 | $400,000 | 25 (including Bridge) | 48 months |
| Bridge (subset of Standard) | $100,000 | $200,000 | — | 48 months |
| Collaboration | $450,000 | $1,200,000 | 15 | 48 months |
Run the arithmetic at the ceilings and the program's intent becomes legible. Twenty-five Standard awards at $400,000 is $10 million. Fifteen Collaboration awards at $1.2 million is $18 million. That totals $28 million against a $30.6 million pool — which means NIFA is planning to fund at or very near the ceilings, not to spread thin averages across a larger field.
That matters strategically. In programs where anticipated awards times the ceiling far exceeds the pool, submitting at the maximum is a losing move. Here it is close to the expected move. An institution that submits a $180,000 Standard proposal in a field where the panel expects $400,000 projects is not being fiscally prudent — it is proposing a smaller project than the program was built to fund.
Every grant type runs 48 months, and NIFA is explicit that "budgets for shorter project durations will not be considered." There is no 24-month or 36-month option.
Three grant types, and the one built for newcomers
Standard Grants support targeted, original Education/Teaching Projects and Community Development Projects. Applicants may partner with other HSIs or non-HSIs without any requirement to share grant funds with partners. Funded up to $400,000.
Bridge Grants are the most interesting line in the notice, and the easiest one to miss because you cannot apply for one. Bridge Grants are a subset of Standard Grants, and eligibility is narrow: applicant institutions "must have not previously received USDA NIFA HSI Education Grants Program funds." You apply for a Standard Grant. The peer-review panel then identifies Bridge candidates from the Regular Grant pool and selects them "based on their potential for enhancing agricultural education and the capacity of the applicant institution to be successful in future grant competitions." Awards are capped at $200,000 over 48 months.
Read that as what it is: a deliberate on-ramp. NIFA is holding open a path for institutions that have never won in this program, scored on capacity-building potential rather than head-to-head against established grantees at full scale. If your institution has never received HSI Education Grants Program money, you are automatically in that consideration pool by virtue of submitting a Standard application — but only if the panel can see capacity-building value in what you wrote. A first-time applicant that writes a proposal indistinguishable from a veteran institution's forfeits the advantage the program built for it.
Collaboration Grants require a group of two or more HSIs forming a linkage arrangement to pursue common objectives. They must support Education Projects only — NIFA states plainly that "Collaboration Grants for Community Development Projects will not be accepted." The lead applicant can be a two-year or four-year institution.
Collaboration Grants also carry the program's one hard performance commitment: the project "is expected to recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate a minimum of 25 students during the four-year life of the grant," with students "closely tracked to monitor their academic progress from recruitment and retention to graduation," plus ongoing support toward internships and shadowing so participants are prepared for careers in the field. NIFA further encourages allocating at least 25 percent of direct costs to participant support — stipends, tuition and fees, housing, meals, dependent care for immersive experiences, and conference travel.
A $1.2 million Collaboration Grant with 25 percent participant support is $300,000 flowing directly to students. A budget that routes most of the money to faculty release time and institutional overhead is arguing against the program's stated design.
The application limits are the most consequential change
Three FY2026-specific restrictions reshape institutional strategy:
- A five-application limit on the number of Regular or Collaboration applications a single institution may submit.
- A project director may not lead a Collaboration Grant application if they currently hold an active NIFA HSI Education Grants Program Collaboration Grant awarded in FY 2024.
- Up to three awards may be made to the same lead institution, with up to one being a Collaboration Grant.
The third rule is the binding one. A large HSI can submit five applications but can win at most three, and at most one of those can be a Collaboration Grant. That places a ceiling of roughly $400,000 + $400,000 + $1,200,000 = $2 million on any single lead institution — about 6.5 percent of the national pool.
The PD restriction is narrower but sharp. It names FY2024 specifically. A project director holding an active Collaboration award from that cohort is blocked from leading another one this cycle — which means institutions with a single strong Collaboration PD need a second qualified lead in place before December 3, not a plan to find one.
Eligibility: the 25 percent threshold and a five-part certification
Only Hispanic-Serving Institutions may apply. NIFA defines an HSI as an institution of higher education that is an eligible institution under 20 U.S.C. 1101a(a)(2) with a minimum of 25 percent undergraduate full-time Hispanic enrollment under 20 U.S.C. 1101a(a)(5).
Eligibility documentation must be submitted with the application — not later, not on request. The Authorized Representative signs a letter certifying five things:
- The institution (or parent institution, for an independent branch campus) is legally authorized by its state to provide an educational program awarding an associate or bachelor's degree, or is a junior or community college.
- The institution is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency determined by the Secretary of Education to be a reliable authority, or is making reasonable progress toward accreditation.
- At least 50 percent of enrolled degree students receive need-based Title IV assistance, or a substantial percentage receive Pell Grants relative to similar institutions.
- Average educational and general expenditures per full-time equivalent undergraduate are low compared to similar institutions — unless waived by the Secretary of Education.
- At the time of application, undergraduate full-time enrollment is at least 25 percent Hispanic.
Data used for certification must be "the most recently available but no older than the 2023-2024 academic year," and the letter must state the timeframe the data comes from. Collaboration applicants must also certify each HSI collaborator. The documentation goes in Field 12: Other Attachments.
Two more restrictions bear noting. Students supported by scholarships or fellowships under these grants must be U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents. And USDA "will not accept competitive applications for grants and cooperative agreements for dangerous gain-of-function research, as defined in Section 8 of E.O. 14292" — boilerplate for most applicants here, but it is in the notice.
The clause that reveals the political environment
Buried in the program description is a sentence that would have been unremarkable three years ago and is not now:
While HSIs are the only eligible entities to apply for this NOFO, funded projects should benefit the entire population at the institution, not solely the Hispanic population.
That framing — institution-level eligibility, institution-wide benefit — is a direct answer to the legal theory currently aimed at the Department of Education's HSI programs.
In June 2025, the State of Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions sued the Department of Education, arguing the Title V HSI programs' 25 percent enrollment threshold is unconstitutional racial balancing under the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in SFFA. Tennessee's complaint argued that all of its public universities serve Hispanic students but none meet what it called an "arbitrary ethnic threshold." In a letter dated July 25, 2025, Solicitor General D. John Sauer notified the Speaker of the House that the Justice Department had decided not to defend the program. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities intervened as a defendant. The case remains pending in the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The downstream effect has been concrete: the Department of Education announced it would not award new discretionary funds under the challenged programs pending resolution, and moved funds away from two of the three — Developing HSIs and Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans — while continuing mandatory funding that statute prevents it from reprogramming.
USDA's program sits on the same statutory definition and has not been enjoined. NIFA posted it, funded it at $30.6 million, and wrote the benefit clause in institution-wide terms. That is not a guarantee against future litigation. It is a reasonable read of why this competition is open while the better-known one is not.
What to do between now and December 3
Decide your grant type first, then write. The Standard-versus-Collaboration choice determines eligible project types (Collaboration is Education Projects only), your budget floor, your partner obligations, and whether you owe a 25-student outcome commitment. It is not a budget decision you make at the end.
If your institution has never received HSI Education Grants Program funds, name that. Bridge selection happens inside the Standard pool and turns on institutional capacity-building potential. Make that potential visible rather than assuming the panel will infer it from your absence from the grantee list.
Count your institution's applications centrally. Five submissions, three maximum awards, one maximum Collaboration. Departments applying independently without coordination can burn the institutional cap on proposals that compete against each other.
Pull your enrollment certification data now. The AR letter requires data no older than 2023-2024, an explicit statement of collection timeframe, and — for Collaboration applications — the same documentation from every partner. Assembling certifications from three or four partner institutions is a multi-week task, not a final-week task.
Budget 48 months. Shorter durations will not be considered.
Historically NIFA has funded roughly 21 percent of applications to this program. At 40 anticipated awards, that implies a field near 190 proposals. The ceilings say NIFA intends to fund real projects at real scale; the application limits say it does not intend to concentrate them.
For related NIFA competitions on the same fall calendar, see our analysis of the FY2026 Higher Education Challenge Grants and the Agriculture Innovation Center program.