Agricultural Scientists Encouraged to Apply for Aflatoxin Mitigation Research Grants

The Aflatoxin Mitigation Center of Excellence Research Program will again offer grants to researchers for projects focused on solving aflatoxin issues. These grants, which will be awarded to researchers focusing on six priority areas, were designed by southern corn checkoff boards to bring a unified approach to funding research projects across the region and will thus favor research teams that include members from multiple states.

“The National Corn Growers Association, working with southern state grower associations including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina, developed AMCOE to bring a unified approach to aflatoxin research that will yield results in a timely and more efficient manner,” said NCGA Corn Productivity and Quality Action Team Chair Charles Ring, a corn grower in Texas. “Working together, we can improve the tools available for aflatoxin control and get real results that farmers can see in their fields.”

Projects funded for 2019 should focus on one of these six priority areas: amelioration, best management, biological controls, breeding, testing and transgenic.

While corn farmers in southern states experience aflatoxin challenges every year, these challenges may present themselves in any corn region of the United States when the crop comes under stress. Thus, the benefits of such research, particularly as outlined in the seven priority areas, are truly national in scope. Thusly, proposals will be considered regardless of the geographic region of the parties submitting and any state wishing to provide additional funding for AMCOE is encouraged to do so.

Pre-proposals from principal investigators, co-principal investigators and collaborators not exceeding the $100,000 per year limit will be accepted by AMCOE until October 23. Preference will be given to pre-proposals that demonstrate potential to develop, evaluate and transfer the aforementioned technologies to corn producers and the potential to acquire additional funding or leverage existing funding.

For more information about the review process, evaluation criteria and program, click here.