UC SAREP Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems 2023-24 Small Grants Program

Request for Proposals

The application period is now closed. To receive notifications of future funding opportunities, sign up for our newsletter.


UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) is pleased to announce the release of the request for proposals for our 2023-24 Small Grants Program. The program funds research projects, education and demonstration programs of research-based technologies and systems, and projects that support the development of sustainable community food systems. We hope that these funds will make a modest but meaningful contribution to ongoing learning, innovation, and relationship building in the communities we serve.  

Program Priority Areas

UC SAREP will fund projects that fall within two priority areas: 

1. Support California’s farmers, ranchers, and land stewards of all scales in identifying, piloting, and transitioning to: 

  • environmentally regenerative approaches to producing crops and livestock (including but not limited to soil health, organic and agroecological practices, integrated pest management, crop diversification);
  • pathways for realizing economic return from ecologically-sound crop management practices and fair labor practices;
  • marketing and distribution strategies that support diversified, decentralized, and locally self-organized supply chains;
  • strategies that promote producer-to-producer networking and producer-to-supply chain networking

2.  Support California’s rural, urban, and Tribal communities to identify, implement, and evaluate strategies to: 

  • expand access to healthy, sustainably produced, culturally appropriate foods;
  • ensure worker wellbeing across the food chain;
  • minimize the community and environmental costs of food production and distribution; 
  • strengthen connections between consumers and producers;
  • establish and strengthen producer-to-producer connections and producer-to-supply chain connections

Funding Available

Individual grants will be limited to a maximum of $10,000, with one Applied Research Grant awarded up to $20,000. In the past two years, we have funded approximately 40% of submitted proposals. 

To see previously funded projects: https://sarep.ucdavis.edu/ucsarep-grants

Resources