In response to authorizing legislation in the 2008 Farm Bill, the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) has created a new competitive grants program for research, education, and extension projects called the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). AFRI replaces the National Research Initiative (NRI) competitive grants program that was administered by CSREES since 1991. AFRI will support competitive grants for research projects as well as integrated projects. Integrated projects can be a combination of: 1) research and education projects, 2) research and extension projects, or 3) research, education, and extension projects. In the past, successful NRI integrated projects focused on: 1) applied research and extension, 2) extension and social science research to evaluate the effectiveness of the extension activities, or 3) fundamental or applied research and education.

The purpose of this survey of IANR Faculty is to:

1. Identify faculty with an interest in applying for specific AFRI funding opportunities, the role faculty prefer to contribute (Project Director {PD}, Co-PD, cooperator, panel reviewer), and the function to which faculty would like to contribute (research, education, extension). Results of this survey will be shared with IANR faculty to assist in developing teams of IANR faculty with common interests in applying for AFRI competitive grants.
2. Identify faculty with an interest in being nominated to serve as panel reviewers for CSREES competitive grants programs. Serving as a panel reviewer for competitive grants programs provides a valuable opportunity to learn more about the peer review process at CSREES as well as gain an insight on effective (and ineffective) grantsmanship.