2025 Large Grant Preproposal Q&A Answers and Recordings

We do not fund work that is already funded by another grant. Applicants with existing funding need to explain how Northeast SARE's grant would fund specific aspects of their work that is not otherwise funded.

It depends a bit on the farm you are working at. We definitely could not fund the start up of a new compost facility, but we could potentially purchase equipment that is specific to testing a new composting method on an existing farm. For questions about specific expenses, we suggest reaching out the grant administrator. 

There must be some research demonstrating that the technology has good potential for adoption for farmers. We have funded new technology, but it must be close to adoption. 

They are! Even in not dirt-focused work, farmers frequently act as service providers for other farmers and can be PIs on a PDP grant.

You can use a simple format for writing an impact - X number of service providers will take Y action (or implement Z new skills) to help X farmers (optional: who represent X units of production)

The only required component of a R&E grant is an education program based on information ready for adoption at the beginning of the project. If you can educate on current best practices while you research whether the practice is adoptable in the Northeast, you could apply to the R&E program. If your focus is really the research on whether the practice that is proven elsewhere is adoptable in the northeast, it would more likely be a NA proposal. 

Northeast SARE large grants rarely fund work with a single farm, typically we fund projects that are relevant to a community (small or large) of farmers. However, if someone was testing a new model for a farming approach, they may have one or a few farms they were working with as a case study. One requirement of the R&E grant is that the education plan must be based on ready-to-adopt information that can taught to farmers at the start of the project. The research component can be more exploratory, but the education program must be based on proven information. One oversimplified example I like to give is lets say you want to do research on a brand new variety of cover crop. The education plan must be based on current best practices around cover cropping, while the research component could explore the new variety. As information becomes available from the research, that could be added to the education program. 

The review teams are made up of a mix of farmers, researchers, service providers, and others involved in sustainable agriculture. The reviewers will have a general understanding of sustainable agriculture, but may not be specified in your area of study, so write your proposal to a general farming audience and avoid jargon. 

Advisory committees are not required for preproposals. The call for full proposals will include information about the advisory committee. Generally, your advisory committee will need to include both farmers and service providers. 

Yes, we have funded food safety training for farmer in the past. Sustainability can be defined in many different ways. It is most important in your preproposal to make the case that your project is addressing a significant need or opportunity for farmers in your target audience. 

Yes, you need to make the case to reviewers that the farmers you are working with meet the definition of the farm. Northeast SARE has intentionally tried to make this definition welcoming to and inclusive of urban and indigenous agriculture. 

I recommend searching funded Northeast SARE projects to see if there are any ideas there. You might also reach out to potential project partners working in your field to see if they have ideas. Northeast SARE staff are unable to support applicants trying to address specific topical challenges for proposals. We can share what reviewers tend to see as strengths and weaknesses, we can help people determine which program their idea is a good fit to apply for, or to answer clarifying questions about how different aspect of our grant programs work, etc. We can't help shape specific proposals ideas. 

Northeast SARE funds any and all topics related to agriculture, as long as the audience meet our definition of a farm. This can include financial and marketing topics, production topics, land access and succession - anything to do with farming as long as the audience meets the definition of a farm. 

It comes back to what the impact is on farmers. You would need to make the case that your project activities are serving the needs of farmers. Social science research is eligible and encouraged. 

It is possible. We are legislated to serve farms, so the prison farm would need to meet Northeast SARE's definition of a farm: https://www.sare.org/wp-content/uploads/Northeast-SAREs-Definition-of-a-Farm.pdf. Generally, we don't fund community garden projects because they don't meet the definition. We recommend reaching out to the staff member for the grant program you would like to apply to for more information. 

Yes, you can submit preproposals to multiple programs, but if you are invited to submit a full proposal to more than one programs, you must choose only one program to which to submit a full proposal.

Yes, as long as you are up to date on your reporting requirements, you can submit an application while you have a currently funded project. 

Yes you can have a cooperator with a subaward outside of the Northeast. However, the vast majority of project activities and the audience served need to be in the Northeast. 

Yes, all projects must have a primary service area within Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, or Washington, D.C.

As long as the audience for the activities, the people receiving the TA, are in the Northeast this is completely fine. 

We do fund projects that replicate existing education programs, as long as the applicant demonstrates a clear need in the specific community that they intend to work with. In the full proposal application, there is an opportunity to include previous work, which is where you could describe this existing project. 

We exist as a grant program to serve farmers. You will need to make the case that farmers or farm service providers are your audience. 

Yes! We have many urban farming projects. You can search our project database here: https://projects.sare.org

The review criteria is listed in the call for proposals for every question, including farming community. Preproposals are short, concept documents, and reviewers understand that they are working with a summary version of the full proprosal. The full proposal will allow more room to expand on this authentic connection.

The Research for novel approaches program farming community question is formatted a bit differently because we know lab research isn't always community-based. It is not a good idea to indicate that you will serve historically underserved communities if you cannot or do not demonstrate how your project is based on an authentic connection. Meaningful connections can be new, so long as they are authentic and based on serving the needs of the partners. 

Yes, you can include information about your plans to build new relationships with underserved communities. However, reviewers are going to be looking to see that this work is done in a way that is not extractive to the community. We encourage you to be thoughtful and transparent. 

This is something we hear often and understand - the longest a Northeast SARE project can be is 3.5 years, but sometimes it takes 5-10 years to verify an outcome. Reviewers do need to see some way to verify progress towards your performance target/intended outcomes. So, in an example like agroforestry, where the performance target may involve planting trees that will not produce an economic return until long after the project is complete a project team might survey the farmers to assess whether the farmers believe the behavior changes they made will contribute to the sustainability of their farm and how. That is just one example - there does have to be some way to document progress towards your performance target and verify some aspect of its success by the end of the project. 

Northeast SARE reviewers regularly fund both kinds of projects. They are looking to see that you have appropriately scaled your project to the community and their needs. In the same funding cycle we regularly fund both projects serving 200 farmers across 3 states with a more dispersed education program AND more localized, targeted projects that serve a cohort of 10 farmers. 

If you are awarded funding, you will be reimbursed by invoicing Northeast SARE. You will put your salary on the invoice based on how your institution budgets. We prefer FTE but we can also do hourly. When your institution invoices us for your salary, we reimburse you at the rate invoiced. 

generally, the host organization gathers the expenses from all partners, then gets reimbursed by Northeast SARE and distributes the funds out to the partners. When a farmer is the PI, they get a different kind of contract than other institutions get, so we may choose to give each partner their own contract. You can reach out to a grant administrator to learn more. 

Our finance team scrutinizes invoices to ensure they match the budget. If they don't match, we can modify your budget so long as it still helps achieve the stated project goals. In general, it is best practice to reach out in advance if you intend to spend funds on something that was not included in your budget. 

Northeast SARE is aware this is a challenge, and we are looking into ways to address this in the future. For now, there are only two very limited strategies we are aware of. The first is: invest staff time the first month of the grant, invoice for that after the first month, and then use that reimbursement towards materials and supplies that are needed for the projects. The second is: Northeast SARE does not require matching funds, so often organizations can use our grants as matching funds towards other grants that can fund early expenses for a Northeast SARE project. 

You can turn in invoices as often as is helpful for you. Our terms are net 30, so we repay within 30 days of receiving a correct invoice.