Northeast SARE: Partnership Grant Program

The Northeast SARE Partnership Grant Program supports innovative projects that enhance sustainable agriculture practices through collaboration between agricultural service providers and farmers. With funding up to $30,000, the program encourages research and education initiatives that address sustainability challenges in Northeast farming systems. It aims to foster partnerships that lead to better agricultural practices and community well-being, focusing on involving farmers directly in project development.

Background
The Partnership Grant program funds projects conducted by agricultural service providers working in partnership with farmers to encourage the understanding and widespread use of sustainable techniques, add to our collective understanding of sustainable agriculture, and strengthen working partnerships between farmers and farm service providers.
Northeast SARE’s Partnership Grant program funds projects conducted by researchers, educators and agricultural service providers working in direct partnership with farmers to encourage design and implementation of innovative solutions to current sustainability challenges related to production, marketing and/or household and community well-being in Northeast farming and food systems, or to strengthen working partnerships between farmers and agricultural service providers to advance sustainable agriculture.
Grants may be used for:
research to improve production practices, marketing approaches, or farmer, farmworker or community well-being;education and training programs to increase knowledge and improve decision-making about sustainable practices; on-farm or in-market demonstrations of new techniques; anddeveloping new farm management and community development approaches that support sustainable agriculture outcomes.
Northeast SARE funds a broad range of projects; there are no set restrictions on the topics that Partnership Grants may address so long as the projects lead to new information or working relationships that are consistent with our outcome statement and address the program’s review criteria. In the past, Partnership projects have experimented with new crop and production methods, addressed farm management challenges, developed unique machines and tools, explored innovative pest control and grazing strategies, tested new ways of marketing agricultural products, and more.
Please note that this program requires an explicit connection to the needs, interests and expertise of farmers and farming partners in the Northeast. It is not designed to support educational programs for the non-farming general public, food donation efforts, general public awareness campaigns about agriculture and nutrition, or community and school gardening initiatives.
Funding Cap
While smaller, one-year projects are welcome and encouraged, the funding cap for Partnership grant proposals has been increased to $30,000 to better allow for projects that:

• enlist multi-institution or multi-disciplinary collaboration,explore more complex subject matter, ortake longer to document results or changes.

Eligibility

You must work for an agricultural organization, legally incorporated business, municipality, or operate a
private consulting business such as a crop consultant or veterinarian. Most applicants are engaged in
agricultural research or outreach in organizations such as:Cooperative ExtensionNRCSstate
departments of agriculturecolleges or universitiesagricultural and community nonprofitsan
agricultural consulting business, or serve on a governmental board or commission dealing with issues
that affect farmers in the region.Projects must take place on farms or directly involve farm businesses. A farm is defined as a commercial
operation with an established farm income of at least $1,000 from a crop, nursery, livestock, or
aquaculture operation.Only one proposal may be submitted each year from an individual applicant, although more than one
individual from an organization may apply.Most projects run
one year, but multiyear projects are not excluded.Projects with a clear social or quality-of-life benefit are welcome, provided the target of these projects is
commercial farmers.

Ineligibility

The program is not designed to support educational programs for children or nonfarmers,
food donation efforts, public awareness campaigns about agriculture and nutrition, or
community or school gardening initiatives.