USDA-NIFA Renews Northeastern IPM Center Funding

The Northeastern IPM Center is pleased to announce that our main operating grant has been renewed for another four years.

The Center—along with the other three regional IPM centers—is funded primarily by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) through the Crop Protection and Pest Management Program (CPPM). USDA-NIFA has traditionally provided $4 million total to each center, or $1 million per center per year. This is reflected in the funding acknowledgment added to materials the Center creates and distributes.

As each four-year cycle winds down, the centers have to submit proposals to USDA-NIFA for continued funding, making a case for the work we’ve done and plan to do for our regions. It’s an open and competitive grant process, meaning there is no guarantee that a given institution will remain host to a center. The centers have been funded this way since 2000, and it’s a credit to our work that we continue to receive funding.

Some years ago, the Northeastern IPM Center was a joint proposal between Pennsylvania State University and Cornell University, but the proposal has been through Cornell for several rounds of funding now, and the Center is based there.

Our USDA-NIFA funding largely supports the numerous functions we coordinate throughout the Northeast, such as communications and outreach (including newsletters, websites, and webinars) and the funding that we in turn distribute to projects throughout the region via our IPM Partnership Grants Program and other small-grant programs.

“Our renewed funding is a testament to the value of our role and the work we’ve done for the Northeast,” said Deborah G. Grantham, director of the Northeastern IPM Center. “The centers are uniquely positioned to provide regional IPM coordination that can help individuals and agencies at the state and local levels achieve a broader, more cohesive impact, and we’ve worked to make the most of that opportunity. We’re proud of this vote of confidence and we look forward to continuing our efforts.”