The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is recruiting industry representatives (growers, packers, shippers, staff from organizations who represent specialty crops, and other stakeholder experts) to serve as relevance reviewers for pre-applications for the 2024 Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI).
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and extension across the nation to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges. NIFA supports initiatives that ensure the long-term viability of agriculture and applies an integrated approach to ensure that groundbreaking discoveries in agriculture-related sciences and technologies reach the people who can put them into practice.
The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems.
The time commitment is about 15-20 hours during the months of January and February. The review panels will take place for about 1.5 hours during the week of February 26th.
If you’re interested in volunteering for this important role:
- Create an account on NIFA’s Peer Review System (PRS) at https://prs.nifa.usda.gov. If you’ve reviewed for NIFA previously, you’ll need to update your profile. If you need assistance with access, you can email NIFA staff at [email protected] or [email protected].
- Complete this scheduling poll to note you’re available to review and indicate your area of expertise: https://forms.office.com/g/tVMrVFSLVX
For any questions about the role and responsibilities of industry relevance reviewers, please contact SCRI Relevance Review Manager Valerie Mellano at [email protected].
For more information, visit the relevance recruit website.
