FAQs
Main frequently asked questions about our fund how we work, the proposal submission and grant management process.
About BARD
BARD operates competitive funding programs that support collaborative agricultural and food research and development in areas of mutual interest to the U.S and Israel, including research programs, scientific workshops, and post-graduate and graduate fellowships.
To bring together US and Israeli scientists to solve important agricultural challenges which are common to the two countries. The fostering of this cooperation creates a synergy which leads to results that would not be possible had the scientists worked independently.
The BARD Research Grant Program funds projects covering all areas of agricultural R&D including strategic or applied research. Researchers can apply for a 1-year feasibility grant or a 3-year grant. There are two tracks for 3-year grants:
- Standard track: up to $310,000 for a 3-year grant.
- Pioneer track: up to $600,000 for a 3-year grant.
- For 2024 BARD will receive submissions in Crop Production, Crop and Soil Health and Aquaculture.
- The Postdoctoral Fellowship Program funds postdoctoral fellowships for citizens from one country (U.S or Israel) to perform agricultural research with established scientists in the other country. One-to-two-year program.
- The Senior Research Fellowship Program promotes joint agricultural research between an established scientist from the US and their Israeli host. Two to twelve months program.
- The Graduate Fellowship Program enables Ph.D. students in one country (U.S or Israel) to travel to the other country to acquire new skills and techniques in their field of study. Two to six months program.
- BARD Workshops Program supports cooperative, impactful and outcome-related workshops in areas related to the binational and agricultural interests of the U.S and Israel.
- Food and Nutrition in partnership with the Israel innovation authority and USDA NIFA- the program supports U.S. and Israeli investigators working together with an Israeli company.
- Nutritional security in partnership with the Ministry of science and technology and USDA NIFA- the program supports U.S. investigators funded by NIFA and Israeli investigators research in fields related to nutritional security.
While BARD will continue to fund agriculturally relevant and scientifically meritorious work in all disciplines of agriculture, the Board of Directors identified the following areas as priority areas for the coming years:
- Improved efficiency of agricultural production, including sustainable development and engineering, enhancing nutritional value, efficient use of resources & agricultural waste, economic evaluation of policies, regulation, and labor; use of functional genomics & proteomics to protect and produce traits supporting increased crop yield and genetic optimization in animals, focus on heterosis opportunities & consequences.
- Plant, animal, and agricultural environment defence, including pest and host genetics, invasive species & emerging diseases, early stress detection and rapid point of care methods, development of safe and bio-secure biological, physical, & chemical control measures.
- Agricultural production challenges in increased marginal conditions, including climate change & abiotic stress factors such as drought, salinity, high temperatures, nutrient, and soil stress.
- Food quality, safety, and security, including improved assessment and detection methods, nutritive value and post-harvest treatment, reduction of food loss & waste, enhanced supply chain quality and technologies, functional foods, development of alternative quality protein sources including plants, fungi, algae, insects, & tissue.
- Soil & water, quality, and quantity, including efficient use of low-quality water (grey, black, saline), improved economic return for water in agriculture, crop response to soil & water quality & their constituents, impact of nutrients and agricultural chemicals on water quality.
- Agricultural Engineering/Precision Agriculture - Sensors, instrumentation, & control systems; robotics and artificial intelligence; mechanization for improving labor efficiency; biological engineering, biotechnology, nanotechnology.
- Sustainable Agri-environmental management, including sustainable ag-based energy systems for reduced energy costs, bioconversion technologies, agricultural feedstock, controlled environment and urban agriculture, renewable resources and ecosystem services, circular bioeconomy, reducing agricultural waste.
BARD’s evaluation procedure consists of a three-tiered review system based on expert ad-hoc reviewers for each proposal, 8-9 discipline review panels, and a 10-member Technical Advisory Committee, which recommend the final interdisciplinary portfolio of projects for approval by the Board of Directors.
BARD is unique among competitive granting programs in requiring collaboration between researchers and following a process of retrospective project evaluation, an important means of judging the effectiveness of research that it has supported. All stages of the review process are predicated on equal representation of U.S. and Israeli scientists.
BARD closely and constantly monitors the continuing evolution of its operations to guarantee that its awardees maintain standards of excellence and that the research that it supports meets the current needs of the two agricultural communities. Its operations have become a benchmark for binational funding in countries with comparable scientific and technological capabilities and common agricultural problems.
The upcoming deadlines are posted on our homepage.
Submitting Proposals
All applications are submitted online through our website (see the applications tab on our website menu). The online submission forms are available about one month prior to the submission deadline. If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please contact us.
Researchers at their discretion can submit a revised proposal only once. If the revised proposal is not accepted for funding, they cannot submit another proposal with the same research objectives. Revised proposals are sent to select reviewers of the previous proposal that had relevant criticism to the original proposal and to new reviewers. It completes for funding with all the other proposals in a given submission.
BARD reserves the prerogative of identifying a given proposal as ‘revised’ or ‘new’. This will be done by comparing the content of the current proposal with the earlier one. Should it not be obvious that it is substantially different, BARD will ask an expert in the field to provide an opinion on this issue. For questions regarding revised proposals please contact us.
One-year feasibility studies are proposals submitted for an opportunity to establish a basis for further research or to provide preliminary results for a particularly innovative idea or concept. Feasibility studies evaluated together with all other proposals. The maximum funding for a feasibility grant is $100,000. See our proposal guidelines for further details.
BARD Research Grant – Maximum award: $310,000 for a 3-year grant.
The Pioneer Funding Track –Maximum award: $600,000 for a 3-year grant
Postdoctoral Fellowship Program- Award amount: $64,000 including travel expenses per year.
Senior Research Fellowship Program- Award amount: $3,000 per month + $2,000 for travel costs.
Graduate Fellowship Student Program Award amount: $1,500 per month, $2,000 for travel costs + $2,000 dependent allowance.
BARD workshops – Award amount varies: $20,000 to $45,000.
A PI or Co-PI may submit more than one proposal in a given year for the BARD research grant, provided that the proposals are pursuing different topics. However, if multiple proposals from the same PI or Co-PI (not necessarily together) are deemed worthy of funding only ONE of these will be funded. BARD’s concurrent funding policies will not apply to those who submit to the Aquaculture and Desert Farming call for proposals. Thus, investigators may submit a proposal to both programs, provided the research plan and objectives do not overlap. Both pioneer and standard track proposals can be submitted under this category.
Notifications of awards are sent to the applicants towards the end of May of the year following the submission.
Managing Grants
BARD requires 3 different reports annually:
- Scientific Reports – submitted annually by the PI of the project and should reflect the progress of all the participants in the grant.
- Fiscal Reports – submitted annually by each funded institution participating in the grant.
- Semi-annual declarations submitted by each funded institution participating in the grant.
Scientific reports are submitted using our online form. About one month prior to the due date the PI will receive an email with access information to the scientific report submission site.
The first two scientific reports and fiscal reports are due 1 and 2 years respectively from the start date of the project. The final scientific report is due three months from the end of the project. The semi-annual declaration is due once a year 6 months after the start of the research year.
The Co-PI’s institution is not a subcontractor of the Principal Institution but is directly a grantee of BARD and the funding received directly from BARD. The letter of agreement is designed to make the affiliated institution responsible only regarding their portion of the budget, and their investigator is responsible to collaborate scientifically as described in the approved proposal.
YES. In our online system you will see the total budget up to the fiscal year report, but you can report the actual expenses up to the total budget. Please note that in that case you will only receive payments according to the schedule of payments.
The online fiscal report will allow maximum budget deviation of $5000 from item to item. In the foreign travel item, we allow a maximum of $300 overspending without the need for a budget change. In case you require a budget change please contact us (by e-mail to: [email protected]).
According to our guidelines (p. 4) BARD must approve, in writing, any changes in the team of investigators or the institutional affiliation.
Both requests should include the BARD’s forms dually signed by the former and the new investigator / affiliated institution’s authorizing official.
BARD should be acknowledged for support in published papers. Use the following format:
This research was supported by Research Grant Award No. __________ from BARD, The United States – Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund.
No-cost extension requests are carefully examined and should be submitted via e-mail to [email protected]. The maximum no cost extension for any project is 9 months.
Yes. However, any substantial changes in the use of the allocated budget must be authorized in advance by BARD. Unexpended balances at the completion of the project shall be refunded to BARD without delay.