Call for Proposals

Funding from the Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium

The Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium (SRSFC) requests proposals for calendar year 2027 to support pertinent applied research and outreach activities on small fruit crops in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

The Consortium especially encourages outreach proposals that result in the development of web-based, in-service agent training modules in areas such as marketing strategies, pest management, post-harvest / handling, and enterprise budgets.

Guidelines

The primary goal of research grants is for funding of applied research that will be of value to small fruit producers. Although these grants can be considered seed grants for larger grants, proposals should be for research that could be completed within a 1-2 year timeframe and for which results would have immediate utility for growers. Consortium grants are not intended to be a means of adding additional funds to an already-funded grant.

Research areas within the Consortium mission include:

• applied cultural studies that investigate production and management issues with findings having potential direct impact on crop production and grower success.
• weed, disease and insect investigations that contribute to management and control of important small fruit pests and diseases including IPM studies.
• breeding methodology studies that focus on important industry crop traits that directly impact the efficiency of new cultivar development.
• postharvest and related studies that impact handling and processing of small fruit crops in addition to studies on health benefits or related investigations on small fruits.

Investigations outside the Consortium mission include:

• genomics or related investigations, particularly those that are part of larger grants with broad and expansive objectives.
• physiological research such as gene expression or related investigations that identify more basic knowledge to be gained without direct applied implications.

Funding requests are limited to no more than $5,000. Proposals asking for over $5,000 will automatically be reduced to $5,000.

TWO proposals per Principal Investigator can be submitted this funding cycle (in either the research or the outreach category or one in each category). Additionally, anyone can be co-P.I. on more than one proposal. Projects funded over the past few years can be seen on the SRSFC website under Sponsored Research and Extension Projects. Extension agents may be a co-P.I.

Funds cannot be used to cover tuition and fees for students.

Research and Outreach proposals must include the following information and must utilize the Proposal Template. Proposals received that do not utilize the template or exceed the page limit will be returned.

The entire proposal is not to exceed five pages in length.  Individuals outside Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia may be included in projects, but the principal investigator must be on the faculty at one of the member institutions.

Research and Outreach proposals will be evaluated and prioritized by the Steering Committee of the Consortium, and recommendations for funding will be forwarded to the Executive Committee for their concurrence.