Center for Produce Safety
Announces Call for Research Proposals
Woodland, California, October 20, 2015 - The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) today announced its 2016 request for proposals on food safety research. The Center and its public and industry research partners will fund general and commodity-specific research aimed at addressing the fresh produce industry's food safety research needs. $3M will be available to fund approved projects.
“Each year the Center for Produce Safety strives to identify high priority research needs. Over the past six years, this process has encouraged the Center to invest approximately $18.2M to fund 112 projects,” stated CPS Technical Committee Chair Drew McDonald. “We will require concept proposals as a first step to identify those ideas that meet the current expectations of the industry. Proposals must be scientifically defensible and industry applicable.”
The 2016 produce safety research objectives have been identified through solicitation of input from the produce industry as well as government and academic stakeholders. In addition, feedback from CPS research meeting participants and reviews of previously funded CPS grants and research outcomes were utilized to identify research objectives. The research objectives have been reviewed and revised by the CPS Technical Committee for the 2016 request for proposals (RFP). Core produce safety research objectives cut across all fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts, in production, packing, processing, cooling, storage, transportation, receiving and point-of-sale environments. Commodity-specific priorities have been provided by industry partners. A link to the complete list of research priorities is posted on the home page of the CPS website at www.centerforproducesafety.org.
To access the RFP Research Priorities and Concept Proposal Form, visit the Grant Opportunities page on the CPS website. Concept proposals are due by 12:00 noon Pacific, Monday, December 7, 2015.
CPS Contact:
Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli, Executive Director
Phone (530) 554-9706
Email bonnie@centerforproducesafety.org
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