Agricultural Biotechnology for Global Food Security | 7200AA20APS00003

Opportunity Information: Apply for 7200AA20APS00003

The Agricultural Biotechnology for Global Food Security opportunity (USAID Funding Opportunity Number 7200AA20APS00003) is a Feed the Future program framework designed to help developing-country partners use agricultural biotechnology to improve global food security. It is aligned with the Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) and focuses on supporting countries that decide to pursue biotechnology as part of their agriculture and food security plans. The core idea is that biotechnology can contribute to higher productivity, better resilience, and improved outcomes in food systems, but only if countries have both the practical capacity to move products from research through adoption and a regulatory and policy environment that enables safe and responsible use.

The program is organized around two main conditions USAID wants to see in partner countries. First, countries need the technical and institutional capacity to advance biotechnology products through the full product life cycle, meaning the pathway from early research and development through testing, approval, commercialization, and eventual scaling and adoption. Second, countries need an enabling environment that supports responsible biotechnology, which typically includes appropriate biosafety systems, science-based decision-making processes, workable policies and regulations, and broader support structures that allow legitimate products to be evaluated and used safely.

Within that structure, the program lists two technical objectives. One objective is to develop and bring to scale agricultural biotechnology products that advance GFSS objectives, while simultaneously building the capacity of local innovation systems and market actors to support those products throughout their life cycle. This emphasizes not just creating a technology, but ensuring local institutions, researchers, regulators, private sector players, and market channels can actually carry it forward and sustain it. The second objective is to support the development of a biotechnology enabling environment in partner countries, reinforcing that policy, regulatory, and institutional readiness is a central part of whether biotechnology efforts succeed.

A key detail is that this announcement is an unfunded umbrella APS (Annual Program Statement). It does not provide funding by itself and it is not a general request for standalone concept papers. Instead, it functions as a standing structure that allows USAID Operating Units and Missions to release separate Addenda over time. Those Addenda are where actual funding opportunities, scopes of work, priorities, and submission requirements will appear. Applicants are expected to track and respond to specific Addenda rather than submitting to the umbrella APS directly, because every application must be tied to an issued Addendum.

Because the umbrella APS is only a framework, eligibility and application requirements are not fixed at the umbrella level. Each Addendum can define its own eligibility rules and may differ from others depending on mission needs, country context, and program priorities. The notice indicates that Addenda may request concept notes and/or full applications (and in some cases may request only a full application), and that a wide range of organization types may be eligible depending on what the Addendum specifies. Practically, this means prospective applicants need to read the relevant Addendum closely and follow its instructions, evaluation criteria, and submission process rather than relying on general assumptions about what is allowed under the umbrella announcement.

Finally, the listed award ceiling is shown as 0 and expected awards are not specified, which reinforces that there is no funding attached to the umbrella APS itself. The original closing date shown (2020-11-20) relates to the umbrella posting, but the real, actionable deadlines are typically set in each individual Addendum. For organizations interested in agricultural biotechnology work with USAID under Feed the Future, the main takeaway is that this opportunity is best understood as an entry point to future, mission-specific solicitations focused on biotechnology product development, scaling pathways, and the regulatory and institutional systems needed to use biotechnology responsibly in partner countries.

• The Agency for International Development in the agriculture, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Agricultural Biotechnology for Global Food Security" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-11-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-11-20. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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