● The Veterinary Service Grant Program-Rural Practice Enhancement Services grant is designed to improve and expand a practice operating within a designated shortage area.
● This grant has a maximum award of $200,000 over 3 years for rural clinics for upgrades to improve their delivery of food animal care.
▼ Click the link below for the NOFO ▼
See page 11 of the NOFO. But the key criteria are below in a nutshell:
► If you are in a VMLRP Type II shortage area, that’s easy, the answer is YES! Click on the next section below to see the map of shortage areas and their Type designation
► If the map of your area only shows Type I shortage situations, you have to use a complicated map, look at the NOFO page 11.
► If your clinic has a current VMLRP awardee serving during the time of loan repayment, you are golden and qualify (but you have to keep the awardee through the 3 years of the RPE grant).
► 1. If you intend to apply for the RPE grant, you MUST be enrolled in the federal SYSTEM FOR AWARD MANAGEMENT (SAM), which will give you a Unique Entity Identifying number (UEI). It can take a few weeks to get this UEI, so best to start EARLY! LIKE TODAY!!! Any private entity that gets funds from the federal government MUST BE ENROLLED IN SAM – that would be YOU!!!! It’s a bit complicated, but free help is available at SAM by phone or email. Click below to go to ► SAM.GOV
► 2. Sorry for all the bureaucracy, but you may as well also enroll in GRANTS.GOV Now, that can take a little time also, but it's WAY LESS complicated. You will need to submit your completed grant through GRANTS.GOV. The submission process is not that difficult, but you gotta be registered. Click below to go to ► GRANTS.GOV
► LifeStock will answer your questions by email at: nifaprogramshelp@lifestock.org (or click the logo at right)
OR,
► You can set up a 1 on 1 support call with us by sending an email request to the address above.
For best results during a VSGP support call, we expect that you will have read through the RFA, listened to the USDA webinars, and completed your preliminary application. Then we can best help you to improve your application.
And, for VSGP-RPE applications, you can contact us anytime. We're here to help you.
There are no fees, and no fees to apply to any NIFA grants.
All VSGP application documents must be received by
April 16, 2026 at 5 PM
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