Courtesy of West Virginia State University
West Virginia State University (WVSU) has been awarded nearly $2 million in grants from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) as part ofa major investment of more than $33 million to support capacity building efforts at the country’s 1890 Land-grant Universities.
WVSU was awarded five grants through NIFA’s 1890 Capacity Building Grants Program, which supports 82 research, Extension and education projects across 19 Historically Black Colleges and Universities designated as 1890 Land-grant Universities. The investments will help build capacity for teaching, research and Extension activities, including curriculum design, materials development, faculty development, student recruitment and retention and Extension program development support.
The grants WVSU received were:
- $599,831 to study machine learning approaches for modelling color patterns, fruit shapes with metabolites for breeding capsicum Chinese peppers;
- $500,000 to study genetic improvement of photosynthesis and biomass yield in switchgrass for bioenergy production;
- $299,988 to study breeding high value squash for enhanced flavor, nutraceuticals and disease resistance by using an interspecific cross of cucurbita maxima and cucurbita moschata;
- $299,986 to develop infrastructure for teaching and training genome editing, single cell sequencing and machine learning for phenomics; and
- $299,859 to study understanding the effect of solar radiation stress and genetic improvement of soybean yield to advance food security.
The funding aims to strengthen the quality and diversity of the nation’s higher-education workforce and equip 1890 Land-grant Universities with resources needed to address emerging challenges better and create new opportunities. All 19 eligible universities will receive funding through the program.
These efforts build on USDA’s recent historic investment of $262.5 million to help institutions of higher education foster the next generation of diverse agricultural professionals across the nation. USDA is committed to improving equity and access, eliminating barriers to its programs for underserved individuals and communities and building a workforce more representative of America.
