Important Notice to NIFA’s Stakeholder Community

Dr. J. Scott Angle NIFA is back and open for business! We thank you for your patience during the lapse in appropriations. It has not been easy for our grantees, but we are committed to resuming normal operations as soon as possible. Thank you also for your strong support for our employees. They are truly dedicated to you, and while we are operating under a three-week continuing resolution, we will work hard to get back to business as usual.

First, we will prioritize items and start with the matters needing the most attention, including the processing of the backlog of awards and payments, rescheduling canceled peer review panels, processing no-cost extensions and other grant actions, responding to ASAP and other grant and program inquiries, and reopening Requests For Applications (RFAs) that were open during the lapse. The Enhancing Agricultural Opportunities for Military Veterans Competitive Grants and the Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship (NNF) Grants Program RFAs will be reposted and extended for seven business days from the date of re-publication. The Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants Program (BRAG) RFA deadline of February 20, 2019, will be extended seven additional business days. Please sign up for NIFA updates on RFAs at https://www.nifa.usda.gov to be notified when these RFA’s are reposted. Additionally, in coordination with Sec. Sonny Perdue and his staff, we’ll start working on implementing the 2018 Farm Bill.

Thank you, again. We appreciate your continuing support. If you haven’t already signed up for our weekly stakeholder update, sign up for updates here.

Dr. J. Scott Angle
NIFA Director

NIFA News

Career Opportunities

Director of Communications

NIFA is recruiting for the position of Director of Communications. This is a crucial leadership position for NIFA. The position is posted on USA Jobs under two announcement numbers. NIFA-M19Y-0534 is open to current permanent federal employees with competitive status. NIFA-S19Y-0533 is open to all U.S. citizens. All applications must be received by Feb. 5, 2019.

Please note that this vacancy was previously announced in December and the closing date was impacted by the Government shutdown. The vacancy has been re-announced and is open for five business days. All applicants who previously applied must resubmit their application to the new vacancy announcement in order to be considered.

If you have any questions, please contact HR Specialist Jensen Dobbins at 703-259-9463.

Planning and Accountability Officer

NIFA is recruiting for the position of the Planning and Accountability Officer. This is a crucial leadership position for NIFA. The position is posted on USA Jobs. Job announcement NIFA-M19Y-0531 is open to current permanent federal employees with competitive status and NIFA-S19Y-0532 is open to all U.S. citizens. All applications must be received by Feb. 5, 2019.

If you have any questions, please contact HR Specialist Frederick Kirby at 703-259-9350.

USDA Message

Perdue named Dr. Scott Hutchins as Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue selected three highly-qualified individuals for senior leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Perdue named Dr. Mindy Brashears as Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, Naomi Earp as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and Dr. Scott Hutchins as Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics. These positions do not require Senate confirmation. Read the full USDA press release.

News for You

U.S. Senate Confirms Kelvin Droegemeier to Lead White House Science Office

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kelvin Droegemeier as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). An emeritus professor and former vice president for research at the University of Oklahoma, Droegemeier was nominated by President Donald Trump July 31, 2018 to lead OSTP, which coordinates science policy across the federal government. Read the full ScienceMag article.

NIFA’s mission is to invest in and advance agricultural research, education, and extension that solve societal challenges. NIFA’s investments in transformative science directly support the long-term prosperity and global preeminence of U.S. agriculture. Keep informed about NIFA, USDA, our land-grant and non-land-grant universities, and stakeholders with the NIFA Update. Read past issues online, sign up for email updates or follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAImpacts.

If you wish to submit a news item or information, send an email to NIFAUpdate.

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