OpportunityTitle: National Clean Plant Network Request for Applications
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: Land Grant Universities,  Non Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture,  State or Local Governments,  Federal Agencies
Description: This program continues funding for FY 2012 as provided under the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (commonly called the Farm Bill of 2008) Section 10202; the National Clean Plant Network.The National Clean Plant Network (NCPN) provides high quality asexually propagated plant material free of targeted plant pathogens and pests that cause economic loss to protect the environment and ensure the global competitiveness of specialty crop producers.Priorities for this program include: 1) establishing and supporting clean plant network governance and related administrative and support systems; 2) providing for operations needed for the rapid and safe introduction, diagnosis, treatment, foundation block establishment and release of clean plant materials for planting from foreign and domestic sources for commercial development; 3) conducting methods development to accurately test, develop therapies, and support the establishment of guidelines and standards for different crop species for certification maintenance; 4) developing partnerships with land-grant and other university-based extension and state departments of agriculture and outreach services to interact with commercial nurseries, industry associations and producers; and 5) developing and implementing audit and quality controls.Funding will be provided to Land-Grant Universities, Non Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture, State Agricultural Experiment Stations, State Governments, and Federal Agencies (to the extent that support to Federal clean plant centers as suggested by industry stakeholders) to support implementation and ongoing activities of the NCPN. Applications for cooperative agreement funding are given priority if they are based on specialty crop specific, coordinated plans for developing and maintaining a comprehensive, cohesive and efficient network.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: For technical problems with viewing the RFA, please email
GrantorContactText: Eileen Berke &lt;br/&gt;Management Analyst &lt;br/&gt;Phone 301-851-2856
CloseDateExplanation: There is an important development affecting Grants.gov beginning May 23, 2012.  In order to submit an application through Grants.gov for NCPN funding you must be &#145;registered&#146; in Grants.gov, which currently includes registration in the Central Contractor Registry (CCR). The CCR will be going down on May 23, 2012 and will not return into service until the afternoon of May 29, 2012.  Grants.gov will be open during the CCR down-time, but any new CCR registrations must be completed before May 23.   The deadline for submitting proposals to NCPN for consideration this year is May 25, 2012 (Friday) &gt;&gt;&gt; 5:00 pm &#145;east&#146;.  So please note that anyone applying for NCPN funding via Grants.gov must have a current CCR registration before May 23.      NCPN has decided that the deadline for submitting proposals to NCPN will not change and remains May 25 (Friday) by 5:00 pm &#145;east&#146;.    IMPORTANT SUGGESTION:  If you run into submission problems because of the CCR system down-time, as a backup process for this year (as also permitted by the NCPN RFA) &gt;&gt;&gt; you may want to consider also submitting a back-up copy of your full application packet as a scanned or other formatted submission to us directly at NCPN.  You may do this by several means:    1) By attachment to an e-mail sent to &#145;NCPN@aphis.usda.gov&#146; and copy to &#145;Erich.S.Rudyj@aphis.usda.gov&#146;    2) By Express Mail or regular post to the address as mentioned here:    Ms. Tammy Kolt, Administrative Support  National Clean Plant Network  USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Plant Health Programs (PHP)  4700 River Road &#150; Unit 60, Room 4A.03.13  Riverdale, MD  20737  Phone: (301) 851-2160    In both &#145;back-up&#146; cases above, the e-mail submission or other mail submissions must be &#145;postmarked&#146; not later than May 25, 2012 at 5:00 pm &#145;eastern&#146; time.