June 27, 2003

C-FAR Identifies Priority Research to Fund in Fiscal Year 2004

URBANA--The Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR) has selected research projects to fund through its External Competitive Grants Program and Strategic Research Initiative (SRI) Program for fiscal year 2004, which begins July 1, 2003. The C-FAR FY04 appropriation was reduced to $5 million, which resulted in a limited number of new initiatives that could be funded. The majority of funds will be utilized to meet financial commitments to ongoing research. "While we obviously did not want a further reduction in the C-FAR appropriation, in light of the difficult financial situation faced by our state, we recognize that practically every program funded by the state had to share in the burden of scarce resources," said Alan Puzey, chairman of the C-FAR Board of Directors. "We are grateful to Governor Blagojevich and members of the Illinois General Assembly for the support they were able to budget for food and agricultural research."

For FY04, 110 proposals requesting a total of $12.1 million were submitted to the External Competitive Grants Program from researchers throughout Illinois. This program receives 15% of the C-FAR appropriation each year, as mandated by legislation. C-FAR working group participants volunteered many hours to review the proposals, discuss priorities, and make decisions about which projects to fund. Six proposals were selected for funding with the $500,774 available for this year's program (after previous program commitments were accounted for). A list of these projects can be found on the C-FAR website at www.ilcfar.org/research/fy04external.html.

The C-FAR SRI Program was established to implement a targeted, multidisciplinary, and multi-institutional team approach to addressing major concerns and opportunities for Illinois' food, agriculture, and related industries and consumers. For FY04, 41 proposals requesting a total of $43.4 million over the next five years, of which $9.4 million was requested in FY04, were submitted. Due to a limited available funding of $800,000, only three SRIs could be funded through this year's program. A listing of these research initiatives can be found at www.ilcfar.org/research/fy04_sri.html.

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