Grant Details

New and Updated | Grant Search

Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production (UAIP) Competitive Grants Program (Part B): Implementation Activities - FY 2025

Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture
CFDA: 10.935
Federal FON: USDA-NRCS-NHQ-UAIP-25-NOFO0001415
Office: Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production (OUAIP)
Multipart Grant: Yes
Next Due: 03/10/2025 (Application)
Solicitation Date: 01/07/2025
   
Match Required: No
Actual Funds: $2,500,000 (Estimated)
Award Range: $100,000 (Min) / $250,000 (Max)
Summary:

The purpose of this program is to support the development of urban agriculture and innovative production. This program is intended to improve access to local foods in areas where access to fresh and healthy food is limited or unavailable through urban and/or innovative agricultural practices. Funding will support planning and implementation activities that will support multiple farmers or gardeners, impact underserved areas that are lacking access to fresh and healthy foods, and promote urban and/or innovative agricultural practices.

Examples of eligible urban and/or innovative agricultural practices include:

  • Community gardens
  • Urban farms
  • Rooftop farms
  • Urban agroforests
  • Food forests
  • Orchards
  • Outdoor vertical production
  • Green walls
  • Indoor farms
  • Controlled environment agricultural production
  • Greenhouses
  • High-tech vertical technology farms
  • Hydroponic, aeroponic, and aquaponic farm facilities

In general, eligible costs include:

  • Personnel and fringe benefits
  • Travel
  • Purchase, lease, or rental of special-purpose equipment
  • Supplies
  • Contractors
  • Construction, including building a non-permanent, temporary, or movable structure
  • Purchase of water shares or water rights
  • Purchase of land or building space
  • Expanding or improving current operations of an existing greenhouse
  • Other direct costs
  • Indirect costs, including costs of insurance

Funding will be provided for the following program components:

  • (Part A): Planning Activities
  • (Part B): Implementation Activities

The purpose of the Implementation Activities component is to support implementation activities will accelerate existing and emerging models of urban and/or innovative agricultural practices that will serve multiple farmers or gardeners.

Innovative agricultural practices may include new and emerging practices as well as Indigenous or non-traditional agricultural practices. Implementation activities must support one or more of the following:

  • Increasing food production in small, urban, and/or controlled environmental spaces which may include emerging or innovative technology
  • Promoting agricultural businesses through job training and providing resources to help underserved communities access land and equipment, mentoring, and other assistance to new and beginning farmers in the local community
  • Implementation of best practices to address food access, zoning, compost, land access, soil health, emerging technologies, and infrastructure needs at the state, local, municipal, or school level to meet the needs of target community and local agricultural producers
  • Educating the impacted community about food systems, nutrition, agricultural production, and environmental impacts
  • Operating community gardens or nonprofit farms that offer hands-on training in farming or gardening through virtual or web-based formats
  • Providing K-12 schools with educational resources or programs that increase student knowledge of and access to locally grown foods, emphasize the importance of consuming nutritious and locally grown foods, and train students for careers in agriculture or innovative production
Eligibility Notes:

Eligible applicants are:

  • City or township governments
  • County governments
  • Independent school districts
  • Federally recognized Native American tribal governments
  • Native American tribal organizations
  • Nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status
  • Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
  • Special district governments

Priority will be given to applicants with proven capacity to carry out meaningful community-focused work in urban agriculture or innovative production. For the purposes of this program, this capacity will be measured by criteria factors, including:

  • Experience in agriculture or innovative production for three years or more, or in serving underserved communities, or where access to fresh foods is limited or unavailable
  • Demonstrated ability to implement a project, provide fiscal accountability, collect data, and prepare reports and other necessary documentation
  • Demonstrated willingness to share information with researchers, evaluators, practitioners, and other interested parties, including a plan for dissemination of results
  • Collaboration with two or more partner organizations, including smaller farms or operations working in the same project target area to carry out the proposed innovative or urban agricultural work

Previous award recipients with a current award under this program overall are eligible to apply for a new project that has new deliverables, new locations, or new beneficiaries. Applications for supplementation of existing projects will not be accepted.

Applicants may submit more than one application for different projects or projects that propose different approaches.

Partnerships or other similar groupings are not eligible to submit an application. Applications must be submitted by a single eligible entity; however, a partner may serve as a subrecipient.

The following entities are not eligible to apply:

  • For-profit organizations, including small businesses
  • Private or public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education
  • State governments
  • Entities serving as a fiscal agent or sponsor to provide a pass-through subawards to non-eligible entities

Previous award recipients for this component include:

  • Athens Land Trust (GA)
  • Osage Nation (OK)
  • Delaware Nation (OK)
  • Isles Inc. (NJ)

Refer to the Award file for additional information regarding previous award recipients.

Eligible Applicants:
Local Government
Native American Tribe
Non Profits
Schools/School Districts
Tribal Organizations/Institutions
Application Notes:

Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. ET on March 10, 2025.

Applications must be submitted online at www.ecivis.com/grants.gov.

Applications must include:

  • SF 424
  • SF 424A
  • SF LLL (if applicable)
  • Project abstract
  • Project narrative (15 pages max)
  • Declaration of previous projects and past performance (one-half page per description)
  • Budget narrative
  • Grants.gov lobbying form
  • Attachments:
    • Current and pending support form
    • Applicant contact(s) information form
    • Negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA) (if applicable)
    • Subaward information (if applicable)
    • Conflict of Interest information (if applicable)

The project narrative must be formatted on single-spaced and numbered pages with one-inch margins using at least a 12-point standard typeface, such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier.

The following are required in order to submit an application:

  • Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number
  • SAM (System for Award Management) registration

Applicants may obtain a UEI number and verify or renew SAM registration status at www.ecivis.com/sam.

A recording of a pre-recorded webinar held for this program can be found online at www.youtube.com.

Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

  • Consistency with program purpose and priorities (30 points)
  • Internal organization support and partnerships (20 points)
  • Project workplan (20 points)
  • Budget (25 points)
  • Data and information sharing (5 points)

Refer to the NOFA file and Application folder for additional application information.

Match Required: No
Actual Funds: $2,500,000 (Estimated)
Award Range: $100,000 (Min) / $250,000 (Max)
Match Notes:

Matching funds are not required for this program. The provision of matching contributions will not be considered during the application evaluation process.

Funding Notes:

Approximately $2.5 million is expected to be available for this program overall, with an unspecified amount of funding available to support awards through this component. In general, awards are expected to range from approximately $100,000 to $250,000 for this program overall.

Award selections are anticipated to be made by July 1, 2025. Awards are expected to be executed by September 30, 2025.

The project period will last up to 24 months. Applicants should plan their projects based on an estimated project start date of September 30, 2025, and an estimated project end date of September 30, 2027.

Any project income generated during the project period must be used to further the objectives of the project.

Applicants are highly encouraged to build in costs within the application for travel expenses that could support the proposed project’s capacity or advance shared technical knowledge and skills, including travel costs for conferences, educational events, networking, and/or partnership opportunities.

For nonprofit organizations that receive a cooperative or contribution agreement, indirect costs are limited to 10 percent of total direct costs that receive a cooperative or contribution agreement.

Costs for food purchases should be limited to costs related to incidental activities/workshops or training related for participants.

Funds may not be used for:

  • Research projects
  • Direct or indirect payments for a practice in which an individual or legal entity has already received funds or is contracted to receive funds through any U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation program
  • Supplementation of existing projects
  • Purchase, lease or rental of general purpose equipment
  • Pre-award costs

For FY 2024, 17 awards ranging from $86,064 to $350,000 were distributed through this program overall. For FY 2023, a total of $7.4 million was distributed via 25 awards through this program overall. For FY 2022, a total of $14.2 million was distributed through this program overall, with 34 awards distributed through this component. Refer to the Award file for details.

Contacts:

Jose A. Berna
Grants Management Specialist
Jose.Berna@usda.gov

Agency Address
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20250

Contact Notes:

Questions should be emailed to Jose Berna at the address provided and copied to [email protected]. The email subject line must include "USDA-NRCS-NHQ-UAIP-25-NOFO0001415."

Applications must be submitted online at www.ecivis.com/grants.gov.

The agency address provided is for reference purposes only.

Files:
NOFA File: US15540B_NOFA_FY2025.pdf (375.5 Kb)
Application File: US15540B_Application_FY2025.zip (1.3 Mb)
Other Pre-Award File: US15540B_Announcement_FY2025.pdf (209.1 Kb)
Other Pre-Award File: US15540B_FAQ_FY2025.pdf (347.1 Kb)
Other Pre-Award File: US15540B_Appendices_FY2025.pdf (538.7 Kb)
Award File: US15540B_Award_FY2025.pdf (1.5 Mb)
File Notes:

The NOFA file contains the full solicitation for this program. The Application folder contains the required forms for submission. The Announcement file contains the announcement of the solicitation for this program. The FAQ file contains a list of answers to frequently asked questions regarding this program. The Appendices file contains the appendices to the solicitation for this program. The Award file contains information on previous award recipients.

Grant Keywords
USDA, NRCS, OUAIP, UAIP, 501(c)(3), school district, soil conservation district, water conservation district, federally-recognized, Native American tribal Government, tribal government, Native American tribe, state-designated, Indian tribe, Native American tribal organization, tribal organization, school, K-12, agricultural production, farm, farmer, grower, producer, land management, land use, sustainable agriculture, crop, fruit, harvest, orchard, plant, produce, specialty crop, vegetable, food quality, food safety, food security, agricultural practice, co-op, cooperative, farm-to-table, farmer's market, natural, non-toxic, organic farming, organic practice, urban farming, urban farm, suburban farming, suburban farm, fresh food, fresh food access, food desert, hydroponic, aeroponic, aquaponic, hydroponic farming, aeroponic farm, aquaponic farm, rooftop farm, rooftop farming, outdoor vertical farm, outdoor vertical farming, vertical farm, vertical farming, green wall, indoor farm, greenhouse, high-tech vertical technology farm, high-tech farm, high-tech farming, indoor farming, farming science, agricultural science, farming technology, agricultural technology, agricultural education, farming in school, public health, wellness, childhood obesity, diet, healthy choice, healthy lifestyle, healthy living, healthy weight, nourish, nutrition, obese, obesity, overweight, physical fitness, community need, disadvantaged, underserved, economically disadvantaged, very low-income, low-income, extremely low-income, food program, hunger, hungry, basic need, necessities, necessity, city planning, infrastructure development, municipal improvement, distressed community, neighborhood revitalization, sustainable development, urban renewal, community farm, agriculture career, agricultural career, urban agriculture, food island, healthy food, healthy diet, territory, territories, urban orchard, supply chain, food supply chain, UAIP IP, UAIP implementation, vitamin, whole grain, children, families, family, community involvement, advocacy, advocate, innovative agriculture, agricultural innovation, local food, locally grown, locally grown food, Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production Competitive Grants Program, agricultural workforce, career training, farmer training, farmer development, mentor, mentoring, vocational training, career development, employee development, employee training, professional development, professional training, future farmer, Implementation Project, IP, tribe, tribal
Grant Categories
Agriculture
Education
Training & Vocational Services
Health, Prevention/Treatment
Human Services
Science/Technology