The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), in collaboration with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), invites applications for a competitively awarded grant to establish a research center to administer the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics

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(RIDGE) Program.

The USDA Ridge Center will:
1. Provide renewed focus on economic aspects of food and nutrition assistance research; 2. Stimulate innovative research on domestic food and nutrition assistance issues by providing small grants for new analyses of the USDA major food and nutrition assistance programs, food security, and smaller, less studied programs such as the Summer Food Service Program; 3. Broaden the network of social scientists who collaborate in expanding the understanding of the economic, nutrition, and health outcomes of participation in USDA’s food assistance programs, as well as of the issues surrounding program implementation and delivery, and 4. Achieve cost savings through consolidating the previous two RIDGE Centers into one institution.

ERS anticipates that $600,000 will be awarded in fiscal year 2016 to support this activity with additional funding, subject to availability, for 2 more years.