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USDA NIFA's SBIR/STTR Phase I program is the principal non-dilutive federal funding channel for small businesses commercializing agricultural technology, and it has become a significant AI funding source without ever being branded as one.
The program is organized into ten topic areas rather than a single AI call, which means applicants must locate their AI work inside an agricultural problem area - plant production and protection, animal production and protection, forests and related resources, food science and nutrition, rural and community development, aquaculture, biofuels and biobased products, small and mid-size farms, and agriculturally related manufacturing and alternative and renewable energy.
In practice this structure rewards proposals framed around a specific production constraint rather than around a modeling technique.
Machine learning for crop and soil monitoring from remote sensing, computer vision for pathogen and pest detection, autonomous harvesting and weeding robotics, decision-support and yield-prediction systems, and sensor fusion for livestock health all fit comfortably, but reviewers are agricultural scientists and commercialization specialists, not ML researchers, and proposals that lead with architecture rather than with the farm-level problem tend to score poorly.
Phase I awards run from $125,000 to $181,500 for feasibility work, a range that has drifted upward in recent cycles, with Phase II available to successful Phase I awardees for full R&D.
Eligibility is the standard SBIR profile: a for-profit small business concern qualifying for research or R&D purposes, US-based and majority US-owned; the STTR variant requires formal cooperative R&D with a nonprofit research institution, which is the natural route for teams spinning technology out of a land-grant university.
Timing is the practical difficulty - NIFA has historically released the Phase I RFA around July with applications due roughly twelve weeks later in early October, but exact dates shift year to year and the FY2026 date was still pending at the time of review. Applicants should register on SAM. gov and Grants.
gov well in advance and subscribe to Grants. gov alerts, since the release-to-deadline window is short for a program that expects a commercialization plan alongside the technical narrative.
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Or search similar grants →According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Applicants must be for-profit small business concerns that qualify as small businesses for research or research and development purposes, located in the United States and meeting SBA ownership and size requirements. The STTR component additionally requires a formal cooperative research and development arrangement between the small business and a nonprofit research institution such as a university or federal laboratory, with specified minimum work allocations between the partners. Proposals must fall within one of NIFA's ten SBIR/STTR topic areas, which include plant production and protection, animal production and protection, forests and related resources, food science and nutrition, rural and community development, aquaculture, biofuels and biobased products, small and mid-size farms, and agriculturally related manufacturing and alternative and renewable energy technologies. AI, machine learning, precision agriculture, remote sensing and agricultural robotics are funded within these topic areas rather than through a standalone AI topic. Phase I awards range from $125,000 to $181,500 and support feasibility research; Phase II is open only to successful Phase I awardees. The Phase I RFA has historically been released around July with a deadline in early October; the FY2026 deadline was not yet announced at review time and applicants should register on SAM.gov and Grants.gov in advance and monitor the NIFA funding opportunity page. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows phase I awards range from $125,000 to $181,500 for feasibility-stage research. Successful Phase I awardees may subsequently compete for Phase II awards supporting full research and development. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
Applications for USDA NIFA Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I for AI, Precision Agriculture and Agricultural Robotics are due October 1, 2026. Build your timeline backwards from this date to cover registrations, approvals, and final submission checks.
USDA NIFA Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I for AI, Precision Agriculture and Agricultural Robotics is funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
The FY2026 Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program supports basic research in science and engineering at U.S. institutions of higher education, with emphasis on multidisciplinary research where more than one traditional discipline interacts. The Army, Navy, and Air Force basic research offices are seeking applications across 22 topic areas including artificial intelligence and autonomy, information sensing and processing, and systems manipulation. MURI grants typically provide $1.25 million to $1.5 million per year for three years with option to extend two additional years. Approximately $170 million in total funding is available annually across all topics. The program is administered through the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Army Research Office (ARO), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).
The NSF Convergence Accelerator is a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that funds multidisciplinary teams working to solve national-scale societal challenges through convergence research and innovation. Launched in 2019 under NSF's Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, the program operates in two phases: Phase 1 awards are up to $750,000, with successful teams advancing to larger Phase 2 awards. Eligible applicants include institutions of higher education and nonprofit or for-profit organizations. Track I and Track K focus on specific high-priority topics announced each funding cycle. The next deadline is June 15, 2026. Proposals must comply with updated NSF research security policies effective July 2025.
The AI3 Action Institute is a federal effort to build dedicated AI capacity within Native communities rather than fund a single applied AI project. The awardee establishes and operates an AI resource hub for Native communities, providing technology information, facilitating information sharing and technology deployment across tribal and Native-serving organizations, and conducting stakeholder engagement and coalition building across industry, government and academic sectors. Notably, allowable costs cover short-to-medium-term staff costs including the Institute's director as well as facility setup - a recognition that the binding constraint in this space is institutional infrastructure and staffing, not project ideas. The financial structure is the detail that most shapes strategy: with a $2,500,000 floor, a $3,500,000 ceiling and $3,500,000 in total expected program funding across a three-year period, this is effectively a single-award competition, so applicants should assume they are competing for the entire program rather than for a slot in a cohort. Eligibility is restricted to Native-serving entities - federally recognized Indian tribes, incorporated non-federally or state-recognized tribes, consortia of Indian tribes, Native community-based organizations, Urban Indian Organizations, Alaska Native villages and entities, Native Hawaiian serving agencies, Native Pacific Islander serving agencies, and tribal colleges and universities. That eligibility list is broader than many ACF opportunities, extending to Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander serving agencies as well as tribal entities. Applicants should expect the strongest proposals to combine an existing convening role in Native technology or education with a realistic plan for standing up durable staff capacity within the grant period, since a hub that dissolves when funding ends would not serve the program's purpose. The deadline is August 27, 2026, and applications are submitted through Grants.gov under opportunity number 362270.
USDA NIFA's Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program offers $4.8M in FY2026 with a July 16 deadline — planning grants to $50K and project grants to $400K over four years. The catch is a 1:1 match that screens out most applicants. Here is how to build the match, choose your track, and write a self-reliance story that scores.
Read articleWhile headlines chase AI and defense money, USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture runs a tight summer competitive cycle — Equipment Grants (June 25), Agricultural Genome to Phenome (June 29), New Beginning for Tribal Students (July 2), and Crop Protection and Pest Management (July 6). Here is how the four programs fit together, who is eligible, and why the land-grant system has a structural edge.
Read articleSecretary Rollins and NIFA opened the FY26 Research Facilities Act Program on June 15 with a four-tier award structure scaling from $100K planning grants to $30M facility complexes. The dollar-for-dollar cash match, the one-project-per-institution rule, and the 32-day application window are reshaping how land-grants will prioritize their long-deferred capital backlog.
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