§7613 Relevance and merit of agricultural research, extension, and education funded by the Department

Summary

The Secretary must set up rules so that all competitive agricultural research grants run by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) get scientific peer review. The Secretary must also set up relevance and merit reviews for competitive research, extension, and education grants, and must work with the Advisory Board on those rules. Reviewers must not consider whether applicants have matching funds when judging proposals. Each year the Advisory Board must check whether the Department’s funded research, extension, and education work fits the priorities in section 7612(a) and whether funding is enough. The Secretary must use the Board’s findings when writing requests for proposals and when judging applications, and must ask researchers and users for feedback on the prior year’s requests. The Secretary must also require scientific peer review of all Department research, with a panel checking every 5 years that each activity and program has merit and relevance. Panels should be mostly non‑agency scientists, preferably from colleges and universities, and must send results to the Advisory Board. Starting October 1, 1999, certain institutions (1862, 1890, 1994, and Hispanic‑serving agricultural colleges) must have and use a merit‑review process to get research or extension funds.