Tribal Colleges Education Equity Grants Program

The Tribal Colleges Education Equity Grants (TCEG) Program, administered by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, is a funding opportunity designed to build education capacity in food and agricultural sciences for Native Alaskan and American Indian students. This four-year continuation funding cycle, identified by solicitation number USDA-NIFA-TCEG-011837 and assistance listing 10.221, provides approximately 8 million dollars in total funding, with an average individual award range of 228,571 dollars. Eligibility is strictly limited to Tribal Colleges or Universities designated as 1994 Land-grant Institutions. The program focuses on six legislatively mandated priorities: curricula design and materials development, faculty development and teacher preparation, student experiential learning, equipment and instrumentation for STEM, student recruitment and retention, and instruction delivery systems and strategic partnerships. Projects must incorporate a Tribal leadership development component and may utilize innovative technologies such as AI, data science, and robotics. Applications are due by October 7, 2026, via Grants.gov and are evaluated based on the potential for advancing Tribal education, the soundness of the proposed approach and cooperative linkages, and the institutional capability for capacity building. Awardees are required to comply with research integrity standards under 2 CFR Part 422 and utilize the Automated Standard Application for Payments for funding.