USDA Announces Grants for Research Facilities at Agricultural Universities

On June 15, 2026, the USDA announced that applications are now open for the Research Facilities Act Program, which will designate $125 million annually for “the construction, alteration, acquisition, modernization, renovation, or remodeling of agricultural research facilities to conduct research in the fields of food and agricultural science.” 

This funding is intended to “help address decades of deferred maintenance and accelerate modernization of agricultural research facilities across the country.” It is separate from other ongoing USDA research funding, which is used for specific research projects. RFAP is an existing USDA agency, but its total budget in 2025 was only $970,000, so this is a “historic investment.” 

RFAP funding can be used for research laboratories, specimen storage, classrooms, greenhouses, or other research-related structures, including animal barns or aquaculture units. Any agricultural research institution eligible to receive USDA funds can submit applications for one of four funding levels, ranging from $100,000–$200,000 planning grants to $10–$30 million large-scale research complexes.

The USDA has apparently decided that it is a better use of taxpayer money to fund research facilities at universities instead of maintaining its own. The agency is moving ahead with its plan to decommission the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), its historic but badly maintained flagship research station in Beltsville, Maryland.

Reactions to the announced BARC decommissioning are mixed. The strongest opposition is from Maryland officials, who fear that the USDA will no longer be conducting research relevant to Maryland farmers. The Sierra Club is concerned because BARC is “an ecological haven in an otherwise highly developed area,” including “a stunning collection of habitats” that could be threatened if the land is developed.

Regional USDA research facilities could benefit from the scientists and funding that are currently at BARC. But researchers at some of those facilities, like the US Meat Animal Research Center at the University of Nebraska, say that the reorganization will only bring their program strength back to what it was before the 2025 budget cuts. 

From an eco-ag perspective, new cutting-edge research facilities may or may not be a good thing. It all depends on whether the research being done at those facilities is something that will benefit organic farming, which much of current agricultural research does not. Unfortunately, the most expensive facilities are usually those dedicated to biotechnology or farming systems that are not compatible with eco-agriculture.

If the grants that RFAP funded over the last three years are any indication, the benefit to eco-ag will be slim. Those grants went to things like “Outdoor Animal Working Space at Reproductive Biotechnology Center” at Texas A&M and “Extrusion facility renovations to advance underutilized crops in Mountain states” at Montana State University. 

Scott Hutchins, USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics says, “This program is a win for American agriculture and for the next generation of scientists and producers.” But it isn’t really a win unless the research is making American agriculture more regenerative—which, so far, most of it is not.