- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that ANR’s 2012 competitive grants program will fund 16 projects, for a total of approximately $5 million over 5 years. The awards range in value from $46,226 to nearly $600,000. Last year we funded 19 projects with $4.46 million over 5 years.
A full list of the funded projects, collaborators, funding amounts and funding source are posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/anrstaff/Divisionwide_Programs/2012grants.
Key criteria
The purpose of this grants program, outlined in the request for proposals, is to address five strategic initiatives: Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases; Healthy Families and Communities; Sustainable Food Systems; Sustainable Natural Ecosystems and Water Quality, Quantity and Security.
Three key criteria were considered in evaluating full proposals: technical merit, feasibility of achieving objectives in the specified time frame, and clear indications that the work was likely to produce policy-relevant impacts. These attributes are critical to the ANR strategy of demonstrating relevance to key state issues and attracting new funding support.
Grant review process
The five strategic initiative panels reviewed 168 letters of intent for strong, substantive connections to initiative priorities, then invited authors of 79 letters of intent to submit full proposals. We received 77 full proposals from which the 16 projects were selected for funding.
After each proposal received at least two technical reviews by academics who had no conflict of interest with the proposal, the strategic initiatives leaders ranked the proposals and recommended a consensus slate of highly ranked proposals to Program Council. Program Council discussed each of the recommended proposals in detail, and sent the full set of recommended proposals with comments to ANR leadership for final review and selection.
With ANR’s Strategic Vision as our guide, we focus our resources where there is an opportunity to demonstrate impact, inform public policymaking and attract new resources to support all elements of ANR. In doing so, we strive to achieve the greatest benefit for Californians with the investment. Please join me in congratulating this year’s recipients of ANR competitive grants.
Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President, Agriculture and Natural Resources
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This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.