Conservation Innovation Grants 2012 RI | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) 2012 opportunity for Rhode Island, offered through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), is a competitive grant program designed to push practical, real-world conservation forward in agriculture. Its central goal is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies that both protect and enhance environmental resources while still supporting agricultural production. The emphasis is on moving proven or near-ready ideas into wider use by farmers, land managers, and conservation partners, and ultimately getting successful methods incorporated into NRCS technical manuals, guides, references, or transferred into the private sector for broader adoption.

A key point of this opportunity is what it does not fund. CIG is not a research grant program. Instead of supporting early-stage or purely academic research, it targets conservation practices, systems, and tools that have already been studied enough to show a strong likelihood of success. The program is meant to accelerate implementation, testing under real conditions, and adoption at scale. In practice, that means CIG funds on-the-ground conservation innovation such as pilot projects, field demonstrations, and the kind of applied work that proves feasibility, measures results in real settings, and helps others replicate the approach.

Projects may be proposed as single-year or multi-year efforts, with a maximum project length of three years. Applications under this notice are specifically for work conducted in Rhode Island. Proposals are reviewed competitively: NRCS uses a technical peer review panel that scores applications based on the evaluation criteria described in the solicitation. The panel then makes recommendations to the State Conservationist, and the final funding decisions are made by the Rhode Island State Conservationist for NRCS.

For fiscal year 2012 in Rhode Island, the program identifies six focus categories where applicants are encouraged to propose innovations: Nutrient Management, Energy Conservation, Soil Health, Wildlife, Urban and Small Farms, and Aquaculture. While the announcement does not spell out every allowable project type in the text provided, the intent across these categories is consistent: applicants should propose practical innovations that can be demonstrated, validated, and then adopted more broadly, either through NRCS conservation assistance channels or via private-sector uptake.

Funding for this opportunity is limited but meaningful for demonstration-scale work. The estimated total funding available is $125,000, with an expectation of about five awards. Individual awards can be as large as $75,000, and the stated award floor is $0 (which typically signals that awards may vary in size depending on project scope and ranking). The program also requires cost sharing or matching, meaning grantees must contribute non-federal resources toward the project, which helps extend the impact of federal dollars and shows commitment from project partners.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations and individuals that can carry out conservation innovation work. Eligible applicants include federally recognized Native American tribal governments, state governments, city or township governments, special district governments, nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)), private and public institutions of higher education, for-profit organizations other than small businesses, small businesses, and individuals. The grant is listed under CFDA 10.912, tied to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and it is categorized as a discretionary grant supporting agriculture, environment, and natural resources.

The opportunity was posted on March 26, 2012, and the application closing date was May 1, 2012 (with an archive date of May 31, 2012). For applicant support, the notice points to the Rhode Island CIG Program Manager, Joseph Bachand, at (401) 822-8818, for help accessing the full announcement and related materials.

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