Grant Programs
USDA-NIFA Seed Grants
CAUSES receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to support research programs that: 1) improve food security; 2) mitigate climate change; 3) combat childhood obesity and other food related illness; 4) improve food safety; 5) improve water safety and management; and 6) expand alternative energy solutions. CAUSES awards seed grants of typically up to $60,000 for three years to innovative research proposals that address these programmatic areas.
The FY2024 RFP process has closed.
View the list of USDA-NIFA grant recipients below.
USDA-AMS Specialty Crop Block Grant
CAUSES receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to support research programs that enhance the competitiveness of U.S. or U.S. territory grown specialty crops. CAUSES gives subawards of $10,000-$200,000 for two years to innovative research proposals that focus on specialty fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).
Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) Competitive Grants
WRRI is a Federal and District of Columbia government partnership that awards grants for research projects that focus on identifying and solving issues facing water resources in the District of Columbia and the surrounding region. WRRI plays a major role in coordinating and facilitating innovative research projects through its competitive grants awards to the Consortium of Universities of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area: Howard University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Catholic University, Gallaudet University and American University. Areas of focus include drinking water source protection, storm water management, and water and wastewater treatment.
View the list of WRRI grant recipients below.
Recipients of USDA-NIFA Grants
| Year | Title | Principle Investigators | Award | NIFA Goal(s) | Reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Determining Effects of Nitrogen Fixing Plants on Nutrient Density and Productivity in Agroforesty and Polyculture Systems | Lorraine Clark (University of the District of Columbia) & Nazirahk Amen (ND L.Ac.) | $59,975 | Food security | |
| 2015 | Development of A Novel Stormwater Runoff Collection and Treatment System for Urban Agriculture and Food Security | Jiajun Xu & Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia) | $60,000 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | Pesticide residue on fruit and vegetable from farmers market and community gardens in the DC | Tolessa Deksissa, Sebhat Tefera & Yacov Assa (University of the District of Columbia) | $59,998 | Food safety | |
| 2014 | Analysis of Watering Devices for the Planting and Survival of Young Urban Canopy Trees | Mchezaji Axum (University of the District of Columbia) & Peter Forbes (Trees for the Planet) | $31,200 | Climate change | 2015 2014 |
| 2014 | Solar Wells as Alternative Source of Water Supply for Sustainable Food Production | Samuel Lakeou & Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia) | $24,408 | Alternative energy solutions; Climate change | 2015 2014 |
| 2014 | Soil Analysis for Trace Elements and Urban Gardening in the District of Columbia: Food Safety | Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia) | $75,000 | Food safety | 2014 |
| 2014 | Promoting Sustainability: Growing Nutrient Dense Rice Using Drip Fertigation and Biodegradable Mulch | Mchezaji Axum (University of the District of Columbia) and Nazirahk Amen (ND L.Ac.) | $75,000 | Food security | 2015 2014 |
| 2014 | Establishment of Computational Infrastructure at UDC to Initiate Climate Change Research for the District of Columbia | Pradeep Behera, Dong Jeong, Tolessa Deksissa, Elgloria Harrison, Dwane Jones & Mchezaji Axum (University of the District of Columbia) | $64,928 | Climate change | 2014 |
| 2014 | The Five Pillars of Economic Development: A Storytelling Approach to Sustainable Economic Empowerment and Development for two underserved neighborhoods in the District of Columbia | Sabine O’Hara (University of the District of Columbia) | $48,050 | Childhood obesity and other food related illness; Food security | 2014 |
Recipients of USDA-AMS Specialty Crop Block Grant Subawards
| Year | Title | Principle Investigators | Award | NIFA Goal(s) | Reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Four Season Specialty Crop Production, Distribution, and Education | Common Good City Farm | $48,775 | Food security | |
| 2015 | The AyaUplift Project: An Urban-Rural Alliance for Healthy Food Access and Economic Opportunity in Washington, DC | Dreaming Out Loud, Inc. | $46,455 | Food security | |
| 2015 | Washington Parks & People’s Community Harvest program: Food Hub | Washington Parks and People | $50,000 | Food security | |
| 2015 | Installation of Fort Stanton Neighborhood Farm: To Grow Urban Food and Urban Farmers | DC Urban Greens | $50,000 | Food security | |
| 2014 | Capital Area Food Bank Community Gardens | Capital Area Food Bank | $50,000 | Food security | 2015 |
| 2014 | City Orchard | Bread for the City | $50,000 | Food security | 2015 |
| 2014 | Specialty Crop Access to Communities in Need | Purple Mountain Organics | $54,933.74 | Food security | 2015 |
| 2014 | Introduction of the ‘Neighborhood Farm’ as a Model to Reduce the Impact of Food Deserts | DC Urban Greens | $50,000 | Food security; Childhood obesity | 2015 |
| 2013 | The Youth Produce Ambassador Program | Common Good City Farm | $47,000 | Food security; Childhood obesity | 2015 2014 |
| 2013 | Promoting Best Practices in Sustainable Gardening: Three-Season Garden Education for Continuous Harvest | Neighborhood Farm Initiative | $50,000 | Food security | 2015 2014 |
| 2013 | Washington Youth Garden Specialty Crop Field Trip Program | Friends of the National Arboretum‘s Washington Youth Garden | $50,000 | Food security; Childhood obesity | 2015 2014 |
| 2013 | Emerging Urban Farmer Business Development Training | University of the District of Columbia | $7,667.60 | Improve food security | 2015 2014 |
| 2012 | Washington Youth Garden Specialty Crop Gardening Program | Friends of the National Arboretum’s Washington Youth Garden | $45,000 | Food security; Childhood obesity | 2013 2014 2015 |
| 2012 | Educating for Specialty Crop Enhancement through Hydroponics | University of the District of Columbia | $29,584.27 | Food security; Childhood obesity | 2013 2014 2015 |
| 2012 | Specialty Crop enhancement through Soil Productivity Research and Extension Education | University of the District of Columbia | $80,914.63 | Food security | 2013 2014 2015 |
Recipients of WRRI Competitive Grants
| Year | Title | Principle Investigators | Award | NIFA Goal(s) | Reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Evaluating Long-term water quantity and quality performance of Bioretention systems in Washington, DC using monitoring and modeling | Arash Massoudieh (Catholic University of America) | $10,000 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | Does hydraulic fracturing pose a threat to DC’s water supply? A field and modeling Study |
Karen Knee (American University) | $9,955 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | A Novel Water Treatment Solution Using Hybrid Mesoporous Materials Embedded with Metallic Oxide Nanoparticle | Xueqing Song (University of the District of Columbia) | $10,000 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | Water Pollution Prevention and Removal Using Nanostructured Smart Fluid with Switchable Surfactants | Jiajun Xu & Xueqing Song (University of the District of Columbia) | $10,000 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | Evaluating Impacts of Urban Water Ways on the Transportation Networks for the District of Columbia | Pradeep Behera & Yao Yu (University of the District of Columbia) | $10,000 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | Potomac River Stage Forecasting Using a Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization and Evolutionary Algorithm (PSO-EA) Algorithm with LS-SVM | Nian Zhang & Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia) | $10,000 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | Identifying Sources of Chlordane Contamination in Anacostia River Food Fish | Harriette Phelps & Sebhat Tefera (University of the District of Columbia) | $10,000 | Water safety | |
| 2015 | Evaluation of “green roof” effectiveness for nitrogen, phosphorus and suspended solid reduction in runoff from precipitation events | Stephen MacAvoy (American University) | $9,993 | Water safety | |
| 2014 | Development of software Analytical Tool to conduct storm Event Analysis | Pradeep Behera & Dong Jeong (University of the District of Columbia) | $12,400 | Water safety | 2014 |
| 2014 | Prediction of Surface Water Supply Sources for the District of Columbia Using Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) | Nian Zhang & Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia) | $9,417 | Water safety | 2014 |
| 2014 | Stormwater Flood Prediction and Mitigation in Bloomingdale and Ledroit Park Using Bayesian Network and Time Series Analysis | Valbona Bejleri (University of the District of Columbia) | $14,700 | Water safety | 2014 |
| 2014 | Monitoring of Uptake of Water Soluble Phosphorus in Wastewater Samples by Algae Using 31P Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy | Xueqing Song (University of the District of Columbia) | $15,000 | Water safety | 2014 |
| 2014 | Developing a chance-constraint framework for optimization of long-term hydraulic performance of green roofs | Arash Massoudieh (Catholic University of America) & Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia) | $14,918 | Water safety | 2014 |
| 2014 | Geochemical characteristics of an urban river: detecting the influences of an urban landscape | Stephen MacAvoy (American University) | $15,000 | Water safety | 2014 |
| 2014 | Determining the Feasibility of Simulating the District of Columbia’s Department of the Environment Proposed Stormwater Volume Trading Market Using Agent-Based Modeling | Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia & Seth Brown (Water Environment Federation) | $10,900 | Water safety | 2014 |
| 2013 | Monitoring Groundwater for Developing Alternative Source of Water Supply for Homeland Security in the District of Columbia |
Kobina Atobrah & Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia) | $15,000 | Water safety | 2013 |
| 2013 | Stormwater Quality Management with Green Infrastructure: Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue | Charles Glass (Howard University) | $15,000 | Water safety | 2013 |
| 2013 | Bayesian Parameter Estimation of Activated Sludge Processes In Blue Plains Waste Water Treatment Plant | Arash Massoudieh (Catholic University of America) | $14,830 | Water safety | 2013 |
| 2013 | Continuous Monitoring of Urea Concentrations and Harmful Algal Productivity and Physiology | Caroline Solomon (Gallaudet University) | $13,466 | Water safety | 2013 |