2009 Conservation Innovation Grants | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The 2009 Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number USDA NRCS NHQ 09 01) is a discretionary grant program run by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to push practical, on-the-ground conservation forward in agriculture and natural resource settings. The core goal is to speed up the development and real-world adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies, while making federal conservation investments go further by leveraging partner funding and participation. In plain terms, the program is meant to help new conservation ideas move from being "promising" to being used in the field, and then ultimately become standard practice through NRCS tools and references or through uptake in the private sector.

A central point in this announcement is that CIG is not a research grant program. Projects should not be basic research or early-stage experimentation intended mainly to generate scientific knowledge. Instead, CIG is positioned for approaches and technologies that have already been studied enough to show a reasonable likelihood of success and are ready for pilot testing, field demonstrations, and other applied work that proves they can function at real operational scales. The expected outcome is technology transfer or institutionalization, meaning the lessons, methods, and systems proven through the project should be suitable for incorporation into NRCS technical manuals, guides, and references, or be readily adoptable by private-sector users. The program also explicitly welcomes innovative approaches such as market-based systems, as long as they are tied to conservation outcomes and practical adoption rather than pure research.

Funding is tied to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (CFDA 10.912), and the opportunity anticipates around 100 awards with an estimated total funding level of $20,000,000. Individual awards can be as large as $2,000,000, and the award floor is listed as $0, which typically signals that a wide range of project sizes may be considered depending on merit and fit. A cost-sharing or matching requirement applies, meaning applicants should plan to bring non-federal resources to the table and clearly document the match structure in their application materials.

Project duration can be single-year or multi-year, but the maximum period of performance is three years. NRCS accepts proposals from a broad set of eligible applicants, including federally recognized Native American tribal governments, state governments, county and city/township governments, special district governments, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education), for-profit organizations (including small businesses), and individuals. Geographically, the competition is open across all 50 states as well as the Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and the Pacific Islands Area (Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). The funding activity category is Agriculture and Natural Resources, reflecting the program's emphasis on conservation that works alongside agricultural production rather than apart from it.

Key dates listed in the notice include a posted date of January 16, 2009, an original closing date of March 2, 2009, and an updated closing date of March 20, 2009, with an archive date of April 1, 2009. For applicants who had trouble accessing the full announcement, the notice provides a direct point of contact: Gregorio Cruz, CIG Program Manager, USDA NRCS, with contact information including phone (202-720-2335) and fax (202-720-4265), and it references the NRCS homepage as an additional information link.

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