Grant Program Overview

The Northeast SARE Partnership Grant program funds research and/or education projects that are led by a researcher, educator or agricultural service provider working with at least one farmer, exploring innovative topics through experiments, surveys, prototypes, on-farm demonstrations or other research and education techniques.

Please note that this program requires an explicit connection to the needs, interests and expertise of farmers and farming partners in the Northeast. It is not designed to support educational programs for the non-farming general public, food donation efforts, general public awareness campaigns about agriculture and nutrition, or community and school gardening initiatives.

Funding Available

A total of $900,000 has been allocated to fund projects this cycle. Partnership Grants are capped at $30,000 and typically run for one to two years. One-year projects with funding requests well under the cap are encouraged. Proposals with relatively high funding requests should clearly justify the need for a more robust budget. This justification may include: 1) enlisting multi-institution or multi-disciplinary collaboration, 2) exploring more complex subject matter, or 3) taking longer to document results or changes.

Partnership Grant projects must:

be led by a researcher, educator or agricultural service provider
collaborate with at least one farmer who meets Northeast SARE’s definition of a farm
impact both the farmer partner and other farms in the region.
explore an innovative practice and/or introduce an existing practice to a new audience of farmers.
include outreach activities, or sharing of project impacts and results, to the agricultural community beyond the project team and project participants.
align with proposal criteria.

Question and Answer Sessions

Join Partnership Grant Administrator Candice Huber for a brief presentation about the program followed by questions and answers about the 2026 Call for Proposals. Sessions will take place from noon to 1 p.m. EST on March 10, 17, 24, and 31st 2026. Register once to attend any of the sessions.

Please review the call for proposals ahead of the session. It will better help you tailor your questions to fit your project idea.

Northeast SARE On Farm Research/Partnership Grants

$7.7M in funding since 1988
462 projects funded since 1988

Totals reflect available data. Complete information may not be available for all grant programs prior to 2016.

Upcoming Grant Deadlines

Proposals for the 2026 Partnership Grant Program are due by 5 p.m. EST, April 14, 2026. View call for proposals

Which grant program is the best fit for my project?

Visit our
grant comparison chart
to take a quick side-by-side look at our grant programs.

Eligible Applicants

Project Leader Eligibility

The Project Leader can be anyone who works with farmers, including personnel at:

Nonprofit organizations
For profit businesses (including farms) that provide agricultural consulting, veterinary services, etc.
Farms, farmers, farm employees and farming community groups
Communities committed to building the capacity and resilience of sustainable agriculture
Colleges and universities
Cooperative Extension
Municipalities
State Departments of Agriculture
Federal agencies like NRCS
Applications to the Partnership Grant program are limited to one per individual per year. While you may only submit one proposal in a year, other individuals from your organization may also apply.

Organization Eligibility

The Project Leader must be housed at an organization that:

Can sign and commit to a contract with Northeast SARE
Has enough funds to cover at least the first two months of project expenses. Northeast SARE grants are reimbursement-based. Advance payments are not possible. Reimbursements can be made as frequently as monthly.
Is registered/can register in SAM.gov to get a required Unique Entity Identifier, if your project is awarded.
Will respond promptly to communications from Northeast SARE.
Is able to implement the project as outlined in the proposal.
Can submit annual reports each year of the project, plus a final report within 60 days of the project end date.

Location Eligibility

Project activities must primarily take place in the Northeast region of the US, described in part 1. Applicants and host organizations may be located outside of the Northeast region.
Ineligibility
Past SARE grant recipients with unfulfilled reporting requirements cannot apply (for example, no final project report was filed). Current grant recipients are eligible to apply as long as they are up to date on their project reporting (for example, annual and/or final reports are filed on time).
If you have received other grant funding to support your project, you cannot receive funding to support the same project activities from Northeast SARE.

Instructional Videos

Organizational Definitions

Legislative Priorities

All Northeast SARE grants must fit within one or more of SARE's Legislative Priorities that encourage research to increase knowledge concerning agricultural production. These priorities include:

● maintaining and enhancing the quality and productivity of the soil;

● conserving soil, water, energy, natural resources, and fish and wildlife habitat;

● maintaining and enhancing the quality of surface and ground water;

● protecting the health and safety of persons involved in the food and farm system;

● promoting the well-being of animals; and

● Increasing employment opportunities in agriculture.

Farmer Impact

Projects having a significant impact/impression on farmer's and farming communities is also critical. Impact can be economic, social, environmental etc. For example:

How does the research support farmer/farming community livelihoods?
How does the research build strong economies through local and/or regional trade?
How does the research improve crop production?

For impact, replicability is important. Replicability is the ability of another farmer or farming community to obtain similar results when applying the same method (s). In other words, another farmer can utilize the results of the research to benefit their farming practices of behavior.

Outcome Statement

"Northeast agricultural communities honor the holistic connection among land, water, air, and all living beings. Agriculture in the Northeast is sustainable so that all farmers and farm employees can steward resources to ensure sustainability, resilience, economic viability, and a high quality of life."

Innovation

Innovation is defined as the development or adoption of new concepts or ideas and the successful exploration of new ideas. Ideation is the basis of creativity. The process of creative ideation develops new concepts; Innovation applies them. Creativity can only emerge when an innovator takes the idea and puts it into practice. Innovation can also be social and develop and implement novel and effective solutions to meet social and environmental challenges. The results should improve the welfare and well being of individual farmers and farming communities and reproducible. Within the scope of Northeast SARE, examples can include, but are not limited to:

● The introduction of a new behavior/practice, one with which farmers are not yet familiar

● The introduction of an improved or better agricultural behavior/practice, which may not be new, but is an improvement upon what occurred before.

● The opening of a new market that has not been entered previously, whether this market has existed previously.

● A new source of supply of materials or goods, again irrespective of whether this source already exists or whether it has first to be created.

● Improved organizational structure and/or capacity.

Northeast SARE encourages innovative solutions to challenges in farming and food systems in the Northeast USA, including but not limited to the areas of:

Marketing and business
Crop production
Raising livestock
Aquaculture
Economic and social sustainability
Ecological knowledge
Projects related to climate and/or bioenergy work that provide direct or indirect benefits to farmers and ranchers
And more.

Northeast SARE does not support:

Educational programs for the general public
Food donation efforts
General public awareness campaigns about agriculture and nutrition
Community or school gardening initiatives