Section 266.39B. Research grants.

  1.  A comprehensive agricultural research program is established at the Leopold center for sustainable agriculture at Iowa state university of science and technology to provide financial assistance for agricultural research within Iowa. The Leopold center shall establish a grant program for projects designated by the general assembly and other projects deemed necessary for the betterment of agriculture within the state. All funds from the program shall be available to public and private entities in Iowa on a competitive grant basis. Approved research proposals shall meet all of the following criteria:

  a.  The research shall assist Iowa in maintaining productive soil, viable communities, and farms with incomes sufficient to support a family.

  b.  The research shall enhance the profitability of farmers.

  c.  The research shall lead to farming which enhances and preserves Iowa’s environment.

  2.  The research grants shall include:

  a.  Long-term and basic research with preference given to projects which have no traditional funding sources or require a long period of time to produce positive or negative results.

  b.  Emergency response research with preference given to projects which relate to issues expected to address problems occurring within the next five years, which relate to problems that could have substantial social and economic costs, or which offer research opportunities that may be lost if a delay occurs.

  c.  Grants available for matching federal or private funds for projects which are a necessary component of other grants or will produce the highest ratio of outside funds to state funds.

  d.  Crop and livestock research relating to the growth, processing, or marketing of agricultural output, the enhancement of the quality of crops, the lowering of the costs of production, or the avoidance of contamination to food, water, or soil.

  e.  Alternative crop research to enhance the opportunity for self-employment, to promote site-appropriate crops, to assist the state in becoming more self-sufficient in food and energy resources, to grow, process, and market new crops, or to develop the infrastructure to support new crops.

  f.  Research dissemination which will expand the knowledge of potential producers, or will collect, create, or disseminate agricultural knowledge, which will encourage the exchange of agriculturally related information among researchers, or which will provide access to farmers to information resources related to agriculture.

  g.  Agriculture health and safety research to identify, investigate, and increase awareness of agriculture safety problems, develop practical solutions to agriculture safety problems, develop ways to increase awareness and use of safety practices and devices, to improve medical professionals’ ability to diagnose farm-related problems, or to reduce the accident and mortality rate in the agricultural industry.

89 Acts, ch 319, §72