The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced $3.1 million to train the next generation of agricultural leaders. The funding is available through the Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship Grants Program (NNF).

“In the next few years, we expect to see a significant number of job openings for graduates with degrees in agricultural sciences,” NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy said in a press release. “The fellowship program allows us to support the next generation of scientists and innovators, who will play an integral part in the future of our food and agricultural systems.”

This program is designed to invest and develop the next generation of policy makers, researchers and educators in food and agricultural sciences. The NNF program is for graduate degree (master and doctoral) programs.

Applicants should propose training projects to support graduate fellowships in one of the eight targeted expertise shortage areas: animal and plant production; forest resources; agricultural educators and communicators; agricultural management and economics; food science and human nutrition; sciences for agricultural biosecurity; veterinary sciences; food and agriculture data analytics and tools; and integrative biosciences for sustainable food agricultural systems.

Applications are due Sept. 22. For more information, visit NIFA’s website.