National Food Safety Initiative (NFSI)
Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program in Food Safety for Fiscal Year 2000

Many of you are no doubt wondering why you haven't yet seen the Request for Proposals for the FY2000 Food Safety and Quality Initiative (FSQ). The RFP usually comes out in January or early February. However, CSREES has recently announced the availability of funding for an integrated research, education, and extension competitive grants program in food safety for Fiscal Year 2000 under Section 406 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (AREERA) (7 U. S. C. 7626). What does that mean for you, and how does that affect the FSQ Initiative? The following is a brief overview of some changes you might expect for FY2000:

**The Food Safety and Quality National Education Initiative (FSQ) and the Special Research Grant Program for Food Safety have been discontinued. The newly integrated food safety program will hereafter be entitled the National Food Safety Initiative (NFSI).

**The amount available for support of NFSI in FY2000 is approximately $14,277,000.

**Those eligible to apply for NFSI grants include all accredited colleges and universities (land-grant AND non-land-grant universities)

**All proposals will be peer reviewed and all NFSI funds will be awarded on a competitive basis.

**Because NFSI is a new program in FY2000, only new proposals will be accepted. Those who have received previous awards for FSQ or the Special Research Grant Program in Food Safety in FY99 may not submit renewal applications. In other words, all proposals will be treated like NEW applications and all currently funded projects must be re-competed for funding. There is no guarantee that projects funded in FY99 will receive additional funding in FY2000.

**New Plan of Work Projects will not be funded under NFSI. Those with current POW projects funded under FSQ are expected to complete those projects as described under previous FSQ program guidelines.

**NFSI will support projects that address selected priority issues in food safety research, education, and extension, AND those that use an integrated approach to solving problems in food safety.

**Various models for integration of research, education, and extension will be considered for NFSI funding. Proposals describing multi-state, multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary and/or multi-functional activities (and combinations thereof) are acceptable. However, special emphasis will be given to proposals describing multi-functional activities (those that contain research, education, and extension components).

**Funded projects will be awarded for up to 3 years' duration.

Futher details on the NFSI will be included in the RFP. We anticipate that the RFP for the new NFSI will be released in mid-March. The RFP will be published in its entirety in the Federal Register. In addition, it will be posted on the CSREES website. A new website has been established for Section 406 programs at the following URL: http://www.reeusda.gov/integrated