Dear Colleagues,

The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) is seeking individuals to serve as reviewers for upcoming grant competitions. NEEF typically administers 7-10 grant competitions each year that invite educational (both formal and informal) and public land partners across the country to apply for funding. Requests for proposals typically solicit proposals for projects that accomplish the following:

• provide STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education in a place-based context;
• build the capacity of Friends Groups to support their public land partners; and
• execute events that are educational, recreational, and/or volunteer-based.

This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the grant-making process, develop your own grant-writing skills, learn about exciting trends in environmental education and public lands engagement, and contribute your knowledge and experience to NEEF's efforts to select high-quality programs and organizations for funding.

The program requests reviewers with prior experience with:

• environmental education,
• public lands,
• nonprofit management.

For those interested in becoming a reviewer, please email your resume to the NEEF Grants team at grantsadmin@neefusa.org.

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)

Dear Colleagues,

The EPA has released Local Foods, Local Places, a new toolkit to equip communities to pursue local food enterprises. The toolkit includes step-by-step instructions for community-led workshops that allow local officials, community groups, businesses and citizens to explore the benefits of using farmers markets, community kitchens and other food-related enterprises to revitalize communities and develop action plans for pursuing those goals. The toolkit also utilizes best practices and case studies.

Since launching Local Foods, Local Places in 2014, EPA, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Delta Region Authority, has conducted Local Foods, Local Places workshops for 77 communities from among nearly 800 applications. This new toolkit equips more communities to conduct their own workshop in preparation for growing their local food economy to support downtown revitalization.

Across the country, more communities are investing in local foods. According to USDA, the number of farmers markets has grown from about 1,750 in 1994 to more than 8,600 in 2016, a fivefold increase. Local food systems are a growing business opportunity. Locally produced food sales were estimated at $12 billion in 2014 and are expected to exceed $20 billion by 2019. When local food production is harnessed to help spur downtown revitalization, it helps communities achieve multiple goals, including improving the environment and public health and saving natural and economic resources by making efficient use of existing buildings and infrastructure.

To access the toolkit: https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/local-foods-local-places-toolkit

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)

Dear Colleagues,

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are pleased to announce Science Breakthroughs 2030: A Strategy for Food and Agricultural Research, a new study to identify ambitious scientific opportunities in food and agriculture made possible by incorporating knowledge and tools from across the science and engineering spectrum.

As part of this effort, the NAS, Division on Earth and Life Studies will host webinars to identify the next big directions for food and agriculture sciences. Webinar topics scheduled for November 2017 will include water resources and management, sensors in food and agriculture, and integrating agriculture in to the built environment.  

Integrating Agriculture into the Built Environment Part I - Thursday, November 9 at 7:00 am PST

The committee will hear from Peter Groffman of Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies on Microbial Ecosystems and Urban Agricultural.

Integrating Agriculture into the Built Environment Part II - Friday, November 10 at 11:00 am PST

The committee will hear from Michael Hamm of Michigan State University on Frontier Opportunities and Challenges with Developing Regional Agriculture Systems and Ed Harwood of Aerofarms on Toward a Vertical Farm Future.

Those interested in participating in the webinars must register to attend. Please click the webinar title above to complete registration. All webinar recordings will be posted afterwards: http://nas-sites.org/dels/studies/agricultural-science-breakthroughs/events/

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)

Dear Colleagues,

Grants.gov subscriptions allow users to receive a daily email listing all new grant opportunities, notifications of new opportunities matching saved search criteria, and alerts and newsletters containing updates about system enhancements and training resources.

Grants.gov has redesigned its ‘Opportunity Subscription Management' feature, giving users more control over their email subscriptions. New features include:

• One-Click Access: Subscribe to a funding opportunity – including forecast, synopsis and package – with a single click. Tracking changes to a specific grant has never been easier. Subscribe from the View Grant Opportunity page or from the Subscribe to Opportunities page. Also, easily save your search from the Search Grants page.
  
• View & Manage Subscriptions: Review subscriptions to opportunities and update saved searches at any time. Unsubscribe from selected notifications without affecting other subscriptions to opportunities and/or saved searches.
  
• Get Updates on Specific Opportunities: Subscribe once and get notified of any change related to the opportunity. When a forecast or synopsis is modified or deleted, subscribers receive an email notification nightly. When a package is added, modified or deleted, subscribers receive an email notification immediately.
  
• Grants.gov Alerts & Newsletter: Receive timely updates about system enhancements and subscribe to a regular newsletter featuring news and resources for the federal grant community. Users can subscribe during registration or from the subscription page (when logged in).

These upcoming improvements to Grants.gov will impact active subscriptions that provide you with notice regarding new funding opportunities.

After November 18, a Grants.gov account will be required for anyone who wants to receive email notifications about funding opportunities. Please register today so that your ongoing subscriptions to new and/or specific opportunities will not expire. (If you have an inactive Grants.gov account, you can simply log in to reactivate it.) Any subscriptions to saved search criteria will need to be recreated on or after Monday, November 20, 2017.

For more information on the Grants.gov ‘Opportunity Subscription Management' feature, please see: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/outreach/grants-gov-notices/subscription-enhancements.html?utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inactive&utm_content=subs

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)