The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is announcing the availability of Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) State Program funding to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies.

The purpose of CIG is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies in conjunction with agricultural production in the United States and its territories. CIG projects are expected to lead to the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, and innovative approaches (such as market-based systems) to agricultural producers, into government technical manuals and guides, or to the private sector. CIG generally funds pilot projects, field demonstrations, and on-farm conservation research. On-farm conservation research is defined as an investigation conducted to answer a specific applied conservation question using a statistically valid design while employing farm-scale equipment on farms, ranches or private forest lands.

Goals and Objectives

The goals and objectives of this program are:

• Use climate-smart management and sound science to enhance the health and productivity of agricultural lands.
• Lead efforts to adapt to the consequences of climate change in agriculture and forestry.
• Restore, protect, and conserve watersheds to ensure clean, abundant, and continuous provision of water resources.
• Increase carbon sequestration, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and economic opportunities (and develop low-carbon energy solutions).
• Protect agricultural health by minimizing major diseases, pests, and wildlife conflicts.
• Build resilient food systems, infrastructure, and supply chain.
• Foster agricultural innovation.

CIG Priorities

Data Analytics for Natural Resources Conservation 

• Tools developed for use in assisting agricultural producers to manage inputs (e.g., fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel use) and increase conservation adoption using precision agricultural techniques.
• Tools developed in the form of web-based software or mobile applications to measure conservation practice outcomes for a broad audience, including conservation planners, farmers, ranchers, and forest producers.

Precision Conservation Approaches 

• Designs and implements precision conservation projects, with priority given to approaches that incorporate or complement precision agricultural data analytics, technologies, and tools.
• Applies precision conservation techniques that support input management or addresses in-field vulnerabilities while improving overall profitability.

Grazing Lands (Invasive Species) 

• Impacts of growing season and late season prescribed burns to control invasive plants (e.g., sericea lespedeza, old world bluestem, salt cedar, Eastern red cedar, tamarisk).
• Management practices to aid in the control/eradication of invasive species (old world bluestem, etc.) from native grasslands.
• Best management strategies to effectively control the reduction of and increase spread and recovery of invaded landscapes for Salt Cedar.
• Increase available capacity or develop new techniques for invasive plant species control in difficult terrain (inaccessible to ground equipment).
• Using new and innovative techniques (e.g., sUAS) to early detect invasive plant species across large landscapes
• Analyze the effectiveness of new technology (e.g., sUAS) for targeted control of invasive plant species.
• Analyze the use of virtual fencing to achieve conservation goals in grasslands through management of livestock grazing behavior.
• Increase cultural acceptance and local capacity for prescribed burn practices.
• Soil Quality/Soil Health 

Crop, range, and pasture:

• Using new and innovative techniques to measure and quantify improvement in healthy soils.
• Using common and unique soil health management systems/strategies to improve and/or measure improved environmental conditions (e.g., water quality, reducing erosion, etc.).
• Cover crops through aerial seeding and/or broadcast seeding into standing crops:
• Evaluate aerial broadcast techniques, seeding rates, timing, and/or species to determine the effectiveness of establishing cover crops, and/or measuring cover crop performance on cropland.
• Expand on existing aerial application techniques and strategies to demonstrate the performance of cover crops in drier climates on Kansas cropland.
• Water Quality and Quantity 

Stream Health:

• Using fluvial geomorphology principles and concepts to apply natural stream design/restoration to measure, analyze and restore stream function on small streams.
• Developing innovative technologies to measure, collect, analyze stream function to advance science and technology gaps.
• Analyze low-input (low-cost) geomorphic stream restoration techniques.
• Developing innovative technologies to promote the relocation of winter cattle feeding areas from sites adjacent to streams to upland sites.
• Developing innovative technologies and conservation strategies to address classic gully erosion, specifically head cuts (over-falls) advancing up into fields on first and second order streams that empty into deeply incised higher order streams.
• Developing innovative technologies and conservation strategies to address gully erosion, specifically ephemeral gullies persistent on cropped fields.

Studies on underground outlets versus waterways:

• Effects on water quality and quantity (e.g., dissolved phosphorous effects).
• Effects on wildlife (aquatic and terrestrial) when converting from grass to tile waterway systems.

Urban Conservation:

• Develop innovative strategies to address natural resource issues in urban/suburban landscapes (e.g., xeriscape, erosion control, pollinator habitat establishment, etc.).

Wildlife (Pollinator Conservation) 

Impact of crop production on pollinator habitat (e.g., effective strategies to establish and manage pollinator habitat in agricultural areas to measure and/or understand the values, impacts, and challenges for pollinators).

Establishment and management of nectar sources:

• Develops establishment techniques and determines the adequacy of nectar sources for pollinators.
• Monitors nectar sources for pollinators to determine effective size, best management strategies, and/or other services provided.

Funding Information

Estimated Funding

• NRCS Kansas expects to award approximately $250,000 through this opportunity. However, the agency retains the discretion to award a larger or lesser amount.
• The estimated funding floor for this opportunity is $20,000, and the estimated funding ceiling is $125,000.
• Start Dates and Performance Periods: Projects may be between one and three years in duration. Applicants should plan their projects based on an estimated project start date of September 30, 2024.
• Number of Awards: The agency expects to make 5 award(s).

Innovative Conservation Projects or Activities 

• CIG funds the development and field testing, on-farm research and demonstration, evaluation, or implementation of:
• Innovative approaches to incentivizing conservation adoption, including market-based and conservation finance approaches; and
• Innovative conservation technologies, practices, and systems.
• Projects or activities under CIG must comply with all applicable federal, tribal, state, and local laws and regulations throughout the duration of the project; and
• Use a technology or approach that was studied sufficiently to indicate a high probability for success;
• Demonstrate, evaluate, and verify the effectiveness, utility, affordability, and usability of natural resource conservation technologies and approaches in the field;
• Adapt and transfer conservation technologies, management, practices, systems, approaches, and incentive systems to improve performance and encourage adoption;
• Introduce proven conservation technologies and approaches to a geographic area or agricultural sector where that technology or approach is not currently in use.
• Technologies and approaches that are eligible for funding in a project’s geographic area using an EQIP contract for an established conservation practice standard are ineligible for CIG funding, except where the use of those technologies and approaches demonstrates clear innovation.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants and applications must meet eligibility criteria by the application deadline to be considered for award. Eligible applicant type is determined by the implementing program statute. Applicant entities identified in the SAM.gov exclusions database as ineligible, prohibited/restricted, or excluded from receiving Federal contracts and certain Federal assistance and benefits will not be considered for Federal funding, as applicable to the funding being requested under this Federal program (2 CFR 200.206(d)).
• All U.S. non-Foreign, non-Federal entities and individuals are eligible to apply for projects carried out in Kansas. US Federal agencies are not eligible to apply to this opportunity or impart their work to non-federal portion of the budget.
• Individuals that are business owner/operators cannot apply as individuals.

Source: https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/354678