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CALS Business Operations

NIFA’s First Programs Are Moving to eRA

September 5, 2025

As shared in the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) update on August 20, 2025:

NIFA announces the following programs will be transitioning new Funding Opportunity Announcements to the eRA grants management system in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2026.

  • Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative
  • Equipment Grants Program
  • Farm Business and Benchmarking Program
  • Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program
  • Food Safety Outreach Competitive Grants Program
  • Organic Agriculture Research & Extension Initiative
  • Renewable Resource Extension Act National Focus Fund Program
  • Secondary Education, Two-Year Postsecondary Education, and Agriculture in the K-12 Classroom Challenge Grants Program
  • Smith-Lever Special Needs Competitive Grants Program

What Does This Mean for You?

If you are planning on applying for one of the above opportunities, you should register for eRA Commons as soon as possible. Please see our announcement for more information on how to create an account with eRA Commons.

Important Note: Only new applications to the above programs are moving to eRA at this time. Prior awards will continue to operate using previous systems and processes.

Upcoming Training 

The eRA team will host training to provide an introduction and high-level overview of eRA and its capabilities. This training is available to any potential grant applicants or current grant recipients. The training is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 11, 2-4 p.m. EDT. To join, register on our event page.

Looking Ahead

NIFA is working to include additional programs throughout FY 26 and beyond. Keep an eye out for more updates as we continue to modernize our grants management system. For updates and announcements on NIFA’s Grants Modernization Initiative (GMI) and eRA migration, visit the GMI webpage.  

In order to set-up an eRACommons account in CALS, please send the following information to cals_preaward@ncsu.edu: 

First Name:
Middle Name (optional):
Last Name:
NCSU Email:
Preferred Username (please provide 3 options):  
The User ID length should be between 6 and 30 characters and should NOT contain special characters except the @ sign, the hyphen, the period, and the underscore.