VCEDA Telehealth Fund

The Harvest to Market Grant provides local food and farm enterprises in eligible rural counties of Kansas and western Missouri with grants of $5,000 to $25,000 to strengthen their post-harvest and go-to-market capacity. Administered by the Heartland Regional Food Business Coalition, the program is supported by a grant from the Patterson Family Foundation and is designed to help local food businesses serve local and regional markets more effectively. Priority is given to investments in processing equipment, distribution equipment, logistics systems, and marketing, with additional consideration for projects that involve multiple farm or food businesses such as pooling products to fulfill larger orders. Eligible applicants include retail food sales outlets, producers, farmers, ranchers, food and farm cooperatives, value-added processors, aggregation and distribution businesses, food hubs, farmers markets, tribal food and farm enterprises, and food and farm business enterprises including school food service. To qualify, businesses must generally have fewer than 50 employees, less than $2 million in annual gross revenue, and a business address within the eligible Patterson Family Foundation catchment area. Nonprofits are not eligible. Grant funds may be used for website and online store development, marketing, feasibility studies, packaging, equipment, alterations of existing buildings or facilities, construction, personnel costs for staff working directly on the project, post-harvest processing (such as washing, cooling, and packing), and further meat processing after slaughter and initial processing. Funds cannot be used for agricultural production inputs like seeds or feed, animal slaughter or initial meat processing steps, building or land acquisition, ongoing operating costs such as rent and utilities, public education or training projects, or basic research and development. The grant operates on a reimbursement basis, with no matching funds required, and projects must be completed within 6 months of the contract start date.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) aims to support new biomedical, behavioral, and social science investigators who are in the early stages of establishing independent careers in tobacco regulatory research. The R03 grant mechanism supports different types of projects, including pilot and feasibility studies, secondary analysis of existing data, small, self-contained research projects, development of research methodology, and development of new research technology. Applicants are encouraged to conduct projects that ultimately have the potential to inform regulations on tobacco product manufacturing, distribution, and marketing. Research projects must address one or more High-Priority Research Topic(s) related to the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) as mandated by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA), Public Law 111-31. The awards under this NOFO will be administered by NIH using funds made available through FDA CTP and the FSPTCA. Research results from this NOFO are expected to generate findings and data directly relevant to informing the FDA's regulation of the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products to protect public health.

The Facade Improvement Program provides eligible project funding from $3000 up to $34,500 for facade repair and restoration. A 5% match is required and can be satisfied via in-kind monetized amounts for grant application preparation, site plans including approval compilation, estimates, architectural rendering costs, as well as total project cost cash match. The goal of this program is to encourage building restoration, historic preservation, and improved economic vitality by improving building facades. Eligible buildings are commercial and mixed commercial/residential with facades visible from the street. New construction will not be considered for this program.

Black entrepreneurs continue to face systemic barriers when it comes to accessing funding to grow their businesses. Fifteen Percent Pledge is working to address this challenge by supplying Black-owned businesses with no-strings-attached funding to accelerate and sustain their success. For the third year in a row, Fifteen Percent Pledge is partnering with Shop with Google to provide $250,000 in grant funding to unlock the next horizon of growth for three Black-owned businesses. The winner of the Achievement Award will also receive mentoring and pro-bono consulting services from industry leaders.

The Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation for the Astronomical Sciences (ATI) program provides individual investigator and collaborative research grants for the development of new technologies and instrumentation for use in ground-based astronomy and astrophysics.The program supports achieving the science objectives of the Division of Astronomical Sciences. The development of innovative, potentially transformative, technologies and instruments are sought, even at high technical risk.Supported categories include (but are not limited to):advanced technology development, concept feasibility studies, and specialized instrumentation to enable new observations that are difficult or impossible to obtain with existing means.Proposals may include hardware and/or software development and/or analysis to enable new types of astronomical observations.