4R Research Fund Requests Research Proposals on the Impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship in North America

October 8, 2013 – Norcross, Georgia, U.S. – This week, the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Research Fund released its initial request for proposals (RFP) soliciting both literature reviews and syntheses on nutrient stewardship within a national, regional, or cropping system context; as well as new field research and demonstration projects detailing the impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship at these same scales.

The 4R Research Fund was established by the fertilizer industry to help determine sustainability indicators and environmental impact data for implementation of 4R Nutrient Stewardship across North America. It provides needed resource support with a focus on measuring and documenting the economic, social and environmental impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship. The fund drew its initial support from members of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), the Canadian Fertilizer Institute (CFI) and The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and now receives support from a growing list of agribusiness companies and stakeholder organizations.

Proposals are currently being accepted for the following areas of focus:

1. Meta-Analyses on the Impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship (Due Dec. 15, 2013)
The objective of this RFP is to solicit literature reviews and syntheses on topics related to 4R Nutrient Stewardship on a national, regional, or cropping system basis utilizing meta-analyses with stepwise regression, ANOVA, causal analysis, or other statistical methods. The intent of the projects developed from these proposals is to utilize previous research to establish the impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship efforts. This will avoid needless duplication of previous research and inform industry, academia, and agencies of knowledge gaps that need to be addressed with future research.

2. Research and Demonstrations on Impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship (Due Jan. 31, 2014)
The objective of this RFP is to solicit proposals for field research and demonstration projects evaluating the economic, social, and environmental impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship. Projects must address at least one of the 4Rs in addition to rate (preferably all four) for optimal agronomic management and impact on local environmental challenges such as water body nitrate levels or P loads and eutrophication. Impact indicators measured should be scalable and include system productivity and environmental effects such as those listed in the projects requested section of this RFP. Recognition of system and site interactions on the effectiveness of specific 4R practices will be important, including interactions among cultural practices such as rotation, genetics, tillage, nutrient-nutrient interactions, cover crops, etc.

All details on submitting proposals can be found at http://www.nutrientstewardship.com/funding


Media contacts: Dr. Terry Roberts, IPNI President; Phone: 770.447.0335; E-mail: info@ipni.net; or Gavin Sulewski, IPNI Editor; Phone: 770.825.8080; E-mail: gsulewski@ipni.net