Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP) | USDA NIFA VSGP 006700

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NIFA VSGP 006700

The Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP) is a competitive grant opportunity run by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) that is designed to address veterinarian shortages and strengthen access to veterinary services, especially where shortages create risks for animal health, agriculture, and public health. The program focuses on practical, on-the-ground solutions that either (1) substantially relieve designated veterinarian shortage situations or (2) support or make it easier for private veterinary practices to carry out public health-related activities. In other words, proposed projects need to show a clear line between the grant-funded work and a real improvement in workforce capacity or rural service availability.

VSGP funding supports two main kinds of efforts. The first is the Education, Extension, and Training Program Area, which is centered on building the veterinary workforce pipeline and keeping it strong. Projects in this area can include education and training initiatives, recruitment strategies, structured placement programs, and retention efforts aimed at veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and students in veterinary medicine and veterinary technology. The expectation is that applicants will design programs that do more than provide general education; they should be targeted and outcome-driven, with the purpose of reducing shortage conditions and improving service coverage.

The second is the Rural Practice Enhancement Program Area, which is geared toward establishing new rural veterinary practices or expanding existing ones. This track is tailored to clinics and clinic operators who are already delivering veterinary services in rural communities and who can show that grant funding will meaningfully increase capacity, reach, or sustainability. A key requirement here is that the application must be tied to one specific veterinarian shortage situation, and the shortage area designation has to be explicitly stated in the proposal title, in the narrative, and in the relevant form field. Eligibility for this track is also tied to the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) framework: applicants must either be current VMLRP awardees applying for the single shortage area where they have an active service obligation, or they must apply with reference to a shortage area that was listed as "Open" on the VMLRP shortage map for 2019.

Eligibility depends on which program area an applicant is applying under. For the Education, Extension, and Training Program Area, eligible applicants include recognized veterinary organizations or specialty boards acknowledged by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), AVMA-accredited colleges or schools of veterinary medicine, university research foundations or veterinary medical foundations, accredited departments of veterinary science or comparative medicine, state agricultural experiment stations or research farms (including 1890 institutions), and state, local, or tribal government agencies. For the Rural Practice Enhancement Program Area, eligible applicants include for-profit or nonprofit entities located in the United States, as well as individuals, as long as they operate a veterinary clinic providing services in a rural area as defined in federal rural development law (7 U.S.C. 1991(a)) and meet the VMLRP-related shortage area requirements described above.

Across all program areas, award recipients are allowed to subcontract parts of the project to organizations that are not themselves eligible to apply, as long as those partners are necessary to carry out the project. However, the prime applicant must meet all eligibility criteria by the application deadline; failing to do so can lead to the application being removed from consideration or prevent NIFA from making an award even if the proposal is otherwise strong.

Based on the opportunity record provided, the grant is classified as a discretionary USDA NIFA grant under CFDA 10.336 (Agriculture). The listed funding opportunity number is USDA NIFA VSGP 006700. The opportunity was created on 2019-04-05 and had an original closing date of 2019-05-29. The maximum award amount listed is $250,000.

• The National Institute of Food and Agriculture in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.336.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-04-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-05-29. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for USDA NIFA VSGP 006700

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