Assistance program
Research Facilities Act Program
$3.9 Million committed in FY2023–FY2026
- Agency
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture, Department of
- Assistance
- Not Applicable
- CFDA number
- 10.246
- What it does
- The Research Facilities Act Program seeks to strengthen the quality and expand the scope of fundamental and applied research at eligible institutions, by providing them with opportunities to assist in the construction, alteration, acquisition, modernization, renovation, or remodeling of the facility that supports their research, and research training goals and may be too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NIFA grant programs. Projects are financed through a combination of federal matching funds and related fundraising from non-federal third parties.
- Who benefits
- Not Applicable
- Who applies
- 1. Land-Grant University (LGU) System, which includes the 1862 public universities; the 1890 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Tuskegee University; and the 1994 tribal colleges and universities (TCU). 2. Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) of higher education having a demonstrable capacity to carry out the research in food and agricultural sciences. To determine whether your institution is listed as an HSI, consult the most recent version of the Eligibility Matrix on the U.S. Department of Education website. The Eligibility Matrix is a read-only Excel worksheet that lists data for postsecondary institutions. First, select “HSI†from the options at the bottom of the screen. Find your institution and then look at column J (“Meets the [year] Title V HSI Definitionâ€). If the column states “yes,†your institution is eligible. 3. Non-Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCA). To be eligible for RFAP grant, an institution must satisfy the eligibility requirements for NLGCA designation, request the designation, and be certified by NIFA. To view a list of certified NLGCA institutions, visit NIFA-20-001 Non-Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCA) List. Please visit the NIFA-19-005 NLGCA Eligibility Flow Chart resource to determine whether or not an institution is eligible to be designated as a NLGCA as defined in the 2018 Farm Bill. The request for designation form can be found on the Request for Non-Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture Designation resource page. 4. Insular Area Institutions - institution of higher education, as defined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1995 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)), that is located in an insular area and that has a demonstrable capacity to carry out teaching and extension programs in the food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences. All public or non-profit 2-year and 4-year accredited institutions of higher education that offer certificate/degree programs in food and agricultural sciences are eligible. Individual land-grant colleges and universities, and other institutions that have secured land-grant status through Federal legislation, and which are located in insular areas are automatically eligible for awards under the DEG grant program as direct individual applicants. 5. Other entities eligible to receive funds under a capacity and infrastructure program (as defined in section 6971(f)(1)(C). See Appendix IV under a capacity and infrastructure programs.
- Authorized by
- 7 U.S.C. § 390 et seq
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments