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The goal of the LSU Agriculture Collaborative Research Grant Program is to provide seed funds:

1) for the development of collaborative interdisciplinary teams

2) to develop strategic and large-scale grant proposals (> $1 million) for submission to federal agencies and funding programs

3) in areas that are aligned with the LSU Pentagon of Priorities and the LSU AgCenter focal research areas. There is currently $500K committed to this program for the coming year.


The core requirements for consideration are as follows:

  • Principal Investigator must be a full-time tenured or tenure track faculty member in the College of Agriculture or the LSU AgCenter. Other eligibility requirements may be applied.
  • The program requires qualified collaborators that are within the LSU System but outside of the LSU AgCenter or the LSU College of Agriculture (e.g. any LSU A&M College; LSU Health Science Center New Orleans; Pennington Biomedical Research Center; LSU regional institutions, etc.).
  • Projects must align to a specific RFP from a federal agency and/or program and should yield a final proposal submission requesting a minimum of $1 million, at least 50% of which will be project credit for the LSU AgCenter or College of Agriculture.
  • Proposals must make the case that they align with one of the LSU Agriculture focal research areas (soil health, land and water management; crop genetics, plant breeding and plant health; livestock and wildlife animal management; invasive species management; precision agriculture; nutrition and food safety; biofuels, feedstocks and bioproducts) or the key funding priority of food systems security.
  • Investigators can request up to $50,000 in seed money to support planning for these large-scale submissions. Requests for additional funds for projects that are exceptional in scope will be entertained.
  • Proposal requests should focus on team formation, development of preliminary evidence needed, and/or logistical support to prepare a major proposal submission.
  • F&A is not charged to the seed grant.
  • Detailed submission requirements for this funding request are intentionally omitted to encourage innovation in the planning process.
  • Proposals will be evaluated based on originality, relevance to LSU Agriculture focal research areas, transformative potential, promotion of authentic collaborations across LSU units, and expected competitiveness.
  • Requests should be emailed to OVP@agcenter.lsu.edu and at a minimum contain the following:
    • Names and affiliations of investigators
    • Target federal funding opportunity, anticipated award sizes, and whether or not program is limited submission (attach information on funding program as addendum)
    • Proposed topic and intellectual merit, alignment to target federal opportunity, budget and justification. Investigators should delineate the distinguishing features of their project that they anticipate will yield a compelling and highly competitive federal submission.

    Innovate . Educate . Improve Lives

    The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture

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