ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Share Paper on NIFA Funding

CSSP members - the tri-societies  - the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America shared the following important information, which requires broader delivery. Should you have questions, please let us know and we will make sure to get those questions forwarded to the tri-societies 

"I want share with you the latest efforts to help the research community recover from the impacts of shutdowns during the COVID-19 crisis.

The tri-societies have been working with our partners to quickly develop a concept paper on the supplemental funding needs of NIFA. While imprecise due to all of the unknowns, we project NIFA will need around $150 million to provide up to 12 months of supplemental funding to existing grantees. The concept also envisions an additional $80 million investment in extension to increase its capacity to virtually provide essential programming and engagement services. This initial draft has been shared with House and Senate appropriators and the ag committees to ensure NIFA is included in the coming negotiations.

From a broader perspective, the leading university associations are asking Congress to include $26 billion in supplemental extramural research funds in the next relief and economic stimulus package. These funds would be divided among the federal research agencies to help sustain the research workforce (graduate students, postdocs, and other research personal) funded by federal research grants. Supplemental funding would also provide additional support for graduate student, postdocs and research assistants, and would help cover costs associated with restarting research activities.

Congress plans to pursue another $1-2 trillion relief package over the coming weeks. After some initial happy talk of a big infrastructure stimulus, we now expect the 4th relief package to look very similar to the 3rd one – unemployment benefits, small business relief, cash payments to individuals, public health and food safety net programs. We’ll be working to try and add researchers to this list of impacted individuals.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I hope you are all safe and well."

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