Grant Programs

USDA-NIFA Seed Grants

CAUSES receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to support research programs that: 1) improve food security; 2) mitigate climate change; 3) combat childhood obesity and other food related illness; 4) improve food safety; 5) improve water safety and management; and 6) expand alternative energy solutions. CAUSES awards seed grants of typically up to $60,000 for three years to innovative research proposals that address these programmatic areas.

The FY2024 RFP process has closed.

View the list of USDA-NIFA grant recipients below.

USDA-AMS Specialty Crop Block Grant

CAUSES receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to support research programs that enhance the competitiveness of U.S. or U.S. territory grown specialty crops. CAUSES gives subawards of $10,000-$200,000 for two years to innovative research proposals that focus on specialty fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).

Request for Proposals

Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) Competitive Grants

WRRI is a Federal and District of Columbia government partnership that awards grants for research projects that focus on identifying and solving issues facing water resources in the District of Columbia and the surrounding region. WRRI plays a major role in coordinating and facilitating innovative research projects through its competitive grants awards to the Consortium of Universities of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area: Howard University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Catholic University, Gallaudet University and American University. Areas of focus include drinking water source protection, storm water management, and water and wastewater treatment.

Request for Proposals

View the list of WRRI grant recipients below.

Recipients of USDA-NIFA Grants
Year	Title	Principle Investigators	Award	NIFA Goal(s)	Reports
2015	Determining Effects of Nitrogen Fixing Plants on Nutrient Density and Productivity in Agroforesty and Polyculture Systems	Lorraine Clark (University of the District of Columbia) & Nazirahk Amen (ND L.Ac.)	$59,975	Food security
2015	Development of A Novel Stormwater Runoff Collection and Treatment System for Urban Agriculture and Food Security	Jiajun Xu & Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia)	$60,000	Water safety
2015	Pesticide residue on fruit and vegetable from farmers market and community gardens in the DC	Tolessa Deksissa, Sebhat Tefera & Yacov Assa (University of the District of Columbia)	$59,998	Food safety
2014	Analysis of Watering Devices for the Planting and Survival of Young Urban Canopy Trees	Mchezaji Axum (University of the District of Columbia) & Peter Forbes (Trees for the Planet)	$31,200	Climate change	2015 2014
2014	Solar Wells as Alternative Source of Water Supply for Sustainable Food Production	Samuel Lakeou & Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia)	$24,408	Alternative energy solutions; Climate change	2015 2014
2014	Soil Analysis for Trace Elements and Urban Gardening in the District of Columbia: Food Safety	Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia)	$75,000	Food safety	2014
2014	Promoting Sustainability: Growing Nutrient Dense Rice Using Drip Fertigation and Biodegradable Mulch	Mchezaji Axum (University of the District of Columbia) and Nazirahk Amen (ND L.Ac.)	$75,000	Food security	2015 2014
2014	Establishment of Computational Infrastructure at UDC to Initiate Climate Change Research for the District of Columbia	Pradeep Behera, Dong Jeong, Tolessa Deksissa, Elgloria Harrison, Dwane Jones & Mchezaji Axum (University of the District of Columbia)	$64,928	Climate change	2014
2014	The Five Pillars of Economic Development: A Storytelling Approach to Sustainable Economic Empowerment and Development for two underserved neighborhoods in the District of Columbia	Sabine O’Hara (University of the District of Columbia)	$48,050	Childhood obesity and other food related illness; Food security	2014

Recipients of USDA-AMS Specialty Crop Block Grant Subawards
Year	Title	Principle Investigators	Award	NIFA Goal(s)	Reports
2015	Four Season Specialty Crop Production, Distribution, and Education	Common Good City Farm	$48,775	Food security
2015	The AyaUplift Project: An Urban-Rural Alliance for Healthy Food Access and Economic Opportunity in Washington, DC	Dreaming Out Loud, Inc.	$46,455	Food security
2015	Washington Parks & People’s Community Harvest program: Food Hub	Washington Parks and People	$50,000	Food security
2015	Installation of Fort Stanton Neighborhood Farm: To Grow Urban Food and Urban Farmers	DC Urban Greens	$50,000	Food security
2014	Capital Area Food Bank Community Gardens	Capital Area Food Bank	$50,000	Food security	2015
2014	City Orchard	Bread for the City	$50,000	Food security	2015
2014	Specialty Crop Access to Communities in Need	Purple Mountain Organics	$54,933.74	Food security	2015
2014	Introduction of the ‘Neighborhood Farm’ as a Model to Reduce the Impact of Food Deserts	DC Urban Greens	$50,000	Food security; Childhood obesity	2015
2013	The Youth Produce Ambassador Program	Common Good City Farm	$47,000	Food security; Childhood obesity	2015 2014
2013	Promoting Best Practices in Sustainable Gardening: Three-Season Garden Education for Continuous Harvest	Neighborhood Farm Initiative	$50,000	Food security	2015 2014
2013	Washington Youth Garden Specialty Crop Field Trip Program	Friends of the National Arboretum‘s Washington Youth Garden	$50,000	Food security; Childhood obesity	2015 2014
2013	Emerging Urban Farmer Business Development Training	University of the District of Columbia	$7,667.60	Improve food security	2015 2014
2012	Washington Youth Garden Specialty Crop Gardening Program	Friends of the National Arboretum’s Washington Youth Garden	$45,000	Food security; Childhood obesity	2013 2014 2015
2012	Educating for Specialty Crop Enhancement through Hydroponics	University of the District of Columbia	$29,584.27	Food security; Childhood obesity	2013 2014 2015
2012	Specialty Crop enhancement through Soil Productivity Research and Extension Education	University of the District of Columbia	$80,914.63	Food security	2013 2014 2015

Recipients of WRRI Competitive Grants
Year	Title	Principle Investigators	Award	NIFA Goal(s)	Reports
2015	Evaluating Long-term water quantity and quality performance of Bioretention systems in Washington, DC using monitoring and modeling	Arash Massoudieh (Catholic University of America)	$10,000	Water safety
2015	Does hydraulic fracturing pose a threat to DC’s water supply? A field and modeling Study	Karen Knee (American University)	$9,955	Water safety
2015	A Novel Water Treatment Solution Using Hybrid Mesoporous Materials Embedded with Metallic Oxide Nanoparticle	Xueqing Song (University of the District of Columbia)	$10,000	Water safety
2015	Water Pollution Prevention and Removal Using Nanostructured Smart Fluid with Switchable Surfactants	Jiajun Xu & Xueqing Song (University of the District of Columbia)	$10,000	Water safety
2015	Evaluating Impacts of Urban Water Ways on the Transportation Networks for the District of Columbia	Pradeep Behera & Yao Yu (University of the District of Columbia)	$10,000	Water safety
2015	Potomac River Stage Forecasting Using a Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization and Evolutionary Algorithm (PSO-EA) Algorithm with LS-SVM	Nian Zhang & Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia)	$10,000	Water safety
2015	Identifying Sources of Chlordane Contamination in Anacostia River Food Fish	Harriette Phelps & Sebhat Tefera (University of the District of Columbia)	$10,000	Water safety
2015	Evaluation of “green roof” effectiveness for nitrogen, phosphorus and suspended solid reduction in runoff from precipitation events	Stephen MacAvoy (American University)	$9,993	Water safety
2014	Development of software Analytical Tool to conduct storm Event Analysis	Pradeep Behera & Dong Jeong (University of the District of Columbia)	$12,400	Water safety	2014
2014	Prediction of Surface Water Supply Sources for the District of Columbia Using Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM)	Nian Zhang & Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia)	$9,417	Water safety	2014
2014	Stormwater Flood Prediction and Mitigation in Bloomingdale and Ledroit Park Using Bayesian Network and Time Series Analysis	Valbona Bejleri (University of the District of Columbia)	$14,700	Water safety	2014
2014	Monitoring of Uptake of Water Soluble Phosphorus in Wastewater Samples by Algae Using 31P Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy	Xueqing Song (University of the District of Columbia)	$15,000	Water safety	2014
2014	Developing a chance-constraint framework for optimization of long-term hydraulic performance of green roofs	Arash Massoudieh (Catholic University of America) & Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia)	$14,918	Water safety	2014
2014	Geochemical characteristics of an urban river: detecting the influences of an urban landscape	Stephen MacAvoy (American University)	$15,000	Water safety	2014
2014	Determining the Feasibility of Simulating the District of Columbia’s Department of the Environment Proposed Stormwater Volume Trading Market Using Agent-Based Modeling	Pradeep Behera (University of the District of Columbia & Seth Brown (Water Environment Federation)	$10,900	Water safety	2014
2013	Monitoring Groundwater for Developing Alternative Source of Water Supply for Homeland Security in the District of Columbia	Kobina Atobrah & Tolessa Deksissa (University of the District of Columbia)	$15,000	Water safety	2013
2013	Stormwater Quality Management with Green Infrastructure: Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue	Charles Glass (Howard University)	$15,000	Water safety	2013
2013	Bayesian Parameter Estimation of Activated Sludge Processes In Blue Plains Waste Water Treatment Plant	Arash Massoudieh (Catholic University of America)	$14,830	Water safety	2013
2013	Continuous Monitoring of Urea Concentrations and Harmful Algal Productivity and Physiology	Caroline Solomon (Gallaudet University)	$13,466	Water safety	2013

CAL Faculty Support Resources

Grant Programs

USDA-NIFA Seed Grants

USDA-AMS Specialty Crop Block Grant

Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) Competitive Grants

Recipients of USDA-NIFA Grants

Recipients of USDA-AMS Specialty Crop Block Grant Subawards

Recipients of WRRI Competitive Grants