On July 2, the US Department of Agriculture granted the University of Oregon’s request for Non-Land Grant College of Agriculture status. This certification exempts the UO from a 100 percent match requirement on National Institutes of Food and Agriculture grants to non-land grant institutions included in the latest farm bill. Working in coalition, the UO, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Oklahoma and other non-land grant institutions were able to include an exemption process in the final version of the Farm Bill. Oregon’s congressional delegation played a key role in adding the exemption provision to the bill.

If the match requirement were in effect for current grants, the match requirement would have affected $1.3 million in current grant activities for the UO, including research in rural development.