USDA Reveals $6 Million in Available Funding for Antimicrobial Resistance Research

03 May 2016 --- The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the availability of $6 million to fund research to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This funding is available through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill, and administered by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). 

"Through our Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan, USDA is leading the way to better understand how antibiotic resistance develops, find alternatives to antibiotics, and educate people on practices that reduce the need for antibiotics," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "The research projects funded through this announcement will help us succeed in our efforts to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics and protect public health." 

This funding announcement is one of many ways that USDA supports the Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria (CARB) National Action Plan and work of the Task Force for Combating Antibiotic Resistance, which USDA co-chairs. Specifically, this program priority promotes the development of sustainable and integrated food safety strategies that reduce public health risks along the entire food chain, from producer to consumer. 

Applications must address one or more of the following: 
• Develop novel systems approaches to investigate the ecology of microbial resistance microbes and gene reservoirs in the environment in animals, in crops, in food products, or in farm-raised aquaculture products.
• Develop, evaluate, and implement effective and sustainable resources and strategies, to include alternative practices, techniques, technologies or tools that mitigate emergence, spread or persistence of antimicrobial resistant pathogens within the agricultural ecosystem, in animals, in crops, and in food.
• Identify critical control points for mitigating antimicrobial resistance in the pre- and post-harvest food production environment.
• Design innovative training, education, and outreach resources (including web-based resources) that can be adapted by users across the food chain, including policy makers, producers, processors, retailers and consumers.
• Design and conduct studies that evaluate the impact and efficacy of proposed research, education and extension/outreach interventions on antimicrobial resistance across the food chain, from primary producers to primary consumers.

Since 2009, more than $82 million in food safety research and extension grants has been awarded through AFRI, including $3.4 million in fiscal year 2015 for antimicrobial resistance. Previously funded projects include a State University of New York project evaluating critical control points in dairy farm operations and a Texas A&M University project to develop science-based decision aids related to antibiotic stewardship. 

Applications are due August 3, 2016. 

Science funded by AFRI is vital to meeting food, fiber, and fuel demands of a growing global population. AFRI programs help develop new technologies and a workforce that will advance America's national security, energy self-sufficiency, and public health. The President's 2017 budget requests to fully fund AFRI for $700 million; this amount is the full funding level authorized by Congress when it established AFRI in the 2008 Farm Bill. 

Over the past seven years, USDA has collaborated extensively with other federal partners to safeguard America's food supply, prevent foodborne illnesses and improve consumers' knowledge about the food they eat. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service is working to strengthen federal food safety efforts and develop strategies that emphasize a three-dimensional approach to prevent foodborne illness: prioritizing prevention; strengthening surveillance and enforcement; and improving response and recovery. 

At the same time, NIFA has invested in and advanced innovative and transformative initiatives to solve societal challenges and ensure the long-term viability of agriculture. NIFA's integrated research, education, and extension programs, supporting the best and brightest scientists and extension personnel, have resulted in user-inspired, groundbreaking discoveries that are combating childhood obesity, improving and sustaining rural economic growth, addressing water availability issues, increasing food production, finding new sources of energy, mitigating climate variability, and ensuring food safety.