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USDA NIFA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program for AgTech, Precision Agriculture, and AI is sponsored by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). This program funds U. S.
small businesses developing innovative agricultural technologies, including AI-driven precision farming, crop and soil monitoring using machine learning and remote sensing, autonomous harvesting robots, and smart sensors for pathogen detection.
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Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer Programs (SBIR/STTR) | NIFA The lifecycle of grants and cooperative agreements consists of four phases: Pre-Award, Award, Post-Award, and Close Out. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is committed to serving its stakeholders, Congress, and the public by using new technologies to advance greater openness.
The Data Gateway enables users to find funding data, metrics, and information about research, education, and Extension projects that have received grant awards from NIFA. This website houses a large volume of supporting materials. In this section, you can search the wide range of documents, videos, and other resources.
Technical Assistance Webinar: The Equipment Grants Program (EGP) The Equipment Grants Program seeks to provide eligible institutions with the opportunity to acquire a shared-use piece of equipment/instrument that supports their research, research training, and extension goals. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture provides leadership and funding for programs that advance agriculture-related sciences.
Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer Programs (SBIR/STTR) The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offer competitively awarded grants to qualified small businesses to support high quality research related to important scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture that could lead to significant public benefits.
The USDA SBIR/STTR program office directs all activities required under the SBIR law and executes the policy established by the Small Business Administration. The SBIR/STTR programs at USDA are administered exclusively by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Awards are based on the scientific and technical merit of investigator-initiated ideas.
The SBIR/STTR programs do not make loans and do not award grants for the purpose of helping a business get established. SBIR/STTR grants are awarded in 10 broad topic areas . Add a Saved Search.
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National Program Leader: Dr. David Songstad Program Coordinator: Tammi Neville (Acting) Program Specialists: Nurun Nahar U.S. Small Business Administration Agricultural Research Service State Science and Technology Institute Competitive Grant Programs Program Specific Resources SBIR-STTR Phase I Application Evaluation Criteria (pdf - 180 KB) SBIR-STTR Phase II Application Evaluation Criteria. pdf (pdf - 129.
17 KB) Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Brochure Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs Phase I Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs Phase II U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Capital Access United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Security Page last updated: August 4, 2026 Your feedback is important to us.
Scoring criteria used to review proposals for this grant.
According to the current listing, eligibility includes: U. S. small businesses with fewer than 500 employees, organized for profit, and at least 51% owned by U. S. citizens or permanent resident aliens. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows phase I: up to $175,000; Phase II: up to $650,000. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
USDA NIFA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program for AgTech, Precision Agriculture, and AI 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.
Yes — this listing is flagged as national in scope, so applicants across the U.S. may apply, subject to the sponsor's other eligibility criteria.
Applications go through the funder's official portal — the Apply Now link on this page goes there directly.
Children, Youth and Families at Risk Professional Development and Technical Assistance Program is sponsored by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Partners with universities to build connections, competency, and capacity to help Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR) Supportable Community sites develop holistic program support. The CYFAR-PDTA awardee will provide professional development and technical assistance.
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.
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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