The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is seeking 100 volunteers to serve as industry relevance reviewers for their Specialty Crop Research Initiative. Eligible candidates must be currently engaged in, or have been previously engaged in, specialty crop production, handling or processing. Trade association representatives who represent those in specialty production, handling and processing are also encouraged to apply.

Volunteers will need to commit about 15 hours between November 8 and December 13, 2019, where they will be assigned to a panel of reviewers and given a list of pre-applications covering topics as closely related to the individual’s expertise as possible. Reviewers will be asked to read, complete an evaluation form and prepare brief comments on each pre-application. These reviews will be uploaded into NIFA’s Peer Review System.

Once all reviews are complete, NIFA will host conference calls for each panel of reviewers to make decisions on which proposals to invite to submit a full application and what order of priority to apply to those invited. 

Space is limited, please express interest by October 15, 2019, by emailing [email protected] or  [email protected].