When disaster strikes, knowledge is power. Disaster education builds resilient communities ready to respond and recover. Cooperative Extension plays a critical role in the nation’s disaster education efforts, and a new Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) Development Grants Program will enable the Cooperative Extension System to do even more.
Applications for the EDEN Development Grants Program – Advancing Disaster Education America – is now open. You can review the RFA here. The application deadline is April 15, 2024. The goal of the grants program is to fuel the development of creative educational resources and Extension initiatives. These resources will empower EDEN’s mission and the broader land-grant and sea-grant systems to effectively address all phases of disaster management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Focus Areas
The development grants program focuses on four areas of work, detailed below:
- Production of publicly available EDEN resources and scholarship. Deliverables must increase the scope, variety, and number of disaster-related materials available on the website.
- Professional development for EDEN points-of-contact and delegates. Deliverables must include training, EDEN certificates, and related projects to enhance the personal and professional capacity of EDEN Delegates.
- Enhanced membership and participation. Deliverables must include efforts and activities to generate new institutional memberships, increase delegate numbers, and increase participation, particularly among underrepresented groups such as 1890 and 1994 institutions.
- Enhancement of partnerships, relationships, and networks on behalf of EDEN. Deliverables would include outreach and engagement activities intended to build new funding relationships with agencies and organizations, including, but not limited to, USDA.
Award Amount and Eligibility
Committee Awards: Awards of up to $5,000 will be made available to each of nine eligible EDEN committees. A list of eligible committees is available in the full RFA.
Competitive Grants: Four $10,000 grants – one per focus area – and one $15,000 grant are available. These grants are intended to foster cross-committee and cross-focus engagement. Applications may be submitted by Extension professionals employed by land-grant or sea-grant universities that are members of EDEN. For committee-specific awards, at least one individual named in the proposed project must be a committee member. For the larger awards, at least one individual on any proposed project must be an EDEN delegate or point of contact.
If you have questions about the EDEN Development Grants Program, please contact Fred Schlutt at fredschlutt@extension.org.
Timeline
- Application Open: April 1, 2024
- Application Deadline: 11:59 pm Pacific on FRIDAY MAY 10th, 2024
Monday, April 15, 2024 - Award Notification: April 2024
- Award Period: June 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024
Access the complete RFA here.
Application Process: Learn the steps involved in applying for each mini-grant type.
Review, Award & Monitoring: Understand the evaluation process for selecting awardees and how grant progress will be monitored.
Apply here.
About EDEN
EDEN is a collaborative network of Cooperative Extension educators across the United States and territories who work to improve the delivery of education and information and the availability of resources related to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Historically, this grassroots network has been aligned with the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) and supported by USDA NIFA through the Food and Agricultural Defense Initiative (FADI) grant.
The Extension Foundation, in partnership with Washington State University, Iowa State University, and the Cooperative Extension System, is now supporting the administration of the FADI-EDEN project. Learn more about EDEN here.
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