CFAs: Harvest for Health Breakthrough Crop Challenge

Deadline Date: August 07, 2024

 Donor Name: Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR)

 Grant Size: $500,000 to $1 million

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) partnered with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to launch the Harvest for Health Initiative to accelerate the development of underutilized crops, increasing the diversity of foods in the marketplace.

The model developed through this initiative will predict underutilized crops’ potential as sources of functional and nutritious ingredients that could replace, complement or aid in reformulating the existing food products or developing new ones.

While underutilized crops have incredible functional and nutritional potential, the development of such crops for consumption or use in other products is prohibitively expensive and time-intensive. To attract more private sector investment in underutilized crop development, Harvest for Health is launching the Breakthrough Crop Challenge to develop a predictive model that can screen underutilized crops to determine a crop’s usefulness as a source of functional ingredients or nutrients.

The Breakthrough Crop Challenge consists of two parts.

• Part 1: Seed Funding
  • Phase I focuses on a concept note for building a predictive model to identify underutilized crops with properties of interest to food and ingredient companies.
• Part 2: Predictive Model and Validation
  • Part 2 focuses on developing and validating predictive models that effectively identify underutilized crops with properties of interest to food and ingredient companies.

Award Information

• All applications will be reviewed by an expert review panel and $1 million will be awarded to the selected predictive model that meets all outlined criteria.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge and resources necessary to carry out the Breakthrough Crop Challenge as Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) may apply through their home institution or organization. 
• The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research welcomes applications from all domestic and international higher education institutions, non-profit and for-profit organizations and U.S. government-affiliated research agencies.
• All applications will be reviewed by an expert review panel for eligibility to receive the U.S. $1.0 million award.

For more information, visit Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research.