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Investing in the National Research Initiative An Update of the Competitive Grants Program in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1994) / Chapter Skim
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The National Research Initiative: Rationale, Development, and Context
Pages 7-12

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From page 7...
... Until that time, USDA had funded research at its Agricultural Research Service laboratories and provided annual grants to each of 54 state agricultural experiment stations. Other public and private universities, though engaged in fundamental research important to agriculture, were generally excluded from USDA support.
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From page 8...
... Intramural research, conducted primarily at the facilities of the Forest Service, the Agricultural Research Service, and the Economic Research Service, receives more than one-half the USDA total, about $990 million annually ~ It should be noted, however, that in some years a significant portion of these increases have not been for NRI program grants but for other competitively awarded grants, such as the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Program.
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From page 10...
... Approximately one-third of the remaining $450 million is accounted for by congressional earmarks to specific research universities or entities for specific projects, and the other two-thirds to targeted federal initiatives to support international treaty obligations and the like. So, while competitive grants are not the only mechanism for distributing allocations for agricultural research, the board argued in its earlier report that "they are best suited to stimulating new research activity in specific areas of science" (National Research Council, 1989, p.
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From page 11...
... The contributions of competitive grants have been documented in other areas of science, such as biomedicine, that have relied extensively on competitive, peer-reviewed funding. Even at the outset of the NRI program, other federal agencies with strong records in meeting national needs allocated a much larger portion of their research and development expenditures through the competitive grants mechanism: the National Institutes of Health allocated 83 percent and the National Science Foundation, 90 percent (National Research Council, 1989, p.
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From page 12...
... , also known as the cotton bollworm. By developing computer models and rigorously testing predictions, scientists ca n offer sound advice to genetic engineers attempting to produce pest-resistant crops appropriate for a considerable portion of agricultural research funding to continue moving into the system through federal and state formula funds and other noncompetitive means Nonetheless, there remains considerable scope for expanding the NRI at USDA.
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Key Terms

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  • natural enemies
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  • cooperative state
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  • state research
  • nri program
  • forest service

  • million annually
  • farm bill
  • applicant review
  • development expenditures
  • bacterial toxin

  • partial resistance
  • outside traditional
  • intramural research
  • tobacco plants
  • draws productive

  • support potentially
  • conduct peer
  • supporting agricultural
  • potato beetle
  • major federal

  • consequently sought
  • field tests
  • federal initiatives
  • grants mechanism
  • leptinotarsa decemlineata


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