The North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE) program will implement a new, shorter timeline for its Research & Education (R&E) Grant Program this year (2013 grant cycle). The next R&E Call for Preproposals will be issued in August 2012, with preproposals due November 10, 2012. Awards will be announced in August 2013.

The decision to reduce the interval between preproposal submissions to project awards from 15 to 9 months was made in response to survey comments from potential grant applicants. NCR-SARE R&E grant coordinator, Beth Nelson, noted that respondents were strongly in favor of the new timeline.

“Many of the respondents commented that the period between the preproposals being due and funds being available was just too long—a lot can change in 15 months, especially when it covers two growing seasons,” said Nelson.

The new timeline for the R&E grants will be:

• Call for Preproposals: August
• Preproposals due: early November
• Call for Proposals: late February
• Proposals due: late April
• Funding notification: early August
• Funds available: fall

For questions or additional information regarding the timeline of the R&E Grant Program, contact Beth Nelson at schre002@umn.edu.