The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) today announced the launch of the Resilient Agriculture Finance and Insurance Research Collaborative, a research initiative to advance finance and insurance solutions that benefit U.S. farmers and ranchers. The Research Collaborative will solicit initial research proposals in January 2026. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to register for an interactive webinar on December 11, 2025 at 2 pm EST that will provide an opportunity for researchers to build new relationships with industry partners.
“U.S. farmers are facing increasingly challenging weather and economic conditions, making it more difficult to consistently and profitably grow the crops that sustain both their livelihoods and our food system,” said Vincent Gauthier, Senior Manager for Climate-Smart Agriculture at EDF. “This critical research collaborative will help shape financing and insurance solutions that enable farmers to invest in practices that boost their resilience and access the coverage they need to support this transition.”
The Resilient Agriculture Finance and Insurance Research Collaborative will support finance and insurance innovations that provide producers and agribusinesses with science-based strategies that strengthen soil health, improve water use efficiency, and build farmer resiliency to extreme weather events.
“Collaboration between researchers and industry partners is a cornerstone of this initiative,” said FFAR Scientific Program Director Allison Thomson. “We are looking for collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches to develop actionable science-backed financial solutions that work for U.S. farmers and ranchers.”
Key priorities for the Resilient Agriculture Finance and Insurance Research Collaborative include:
- Financing the Transition to Resilient Practices: Evaluating returns on investment and risks of adopting resilient practices to inform agricultural lending solutions for these practices.
- Aligning Resilient Practices with Risk and Insurance Outcomes: Assessing how resilient practices impact yield stability, production risk, and insurance outcomes to guide insurance solutions.
- Valuing Resilience in Farmland and Mortgage Markets: Analyzing how resilient practices affect land value, collateral, and loan repayment capacity to inform appraisal and underwriting models.
The Resilient Agriculture Finance and Insurance Research Collaborative will launch its request for proposals on January 15, 2026. More funding opportunity details will be available on the Cornell Atkinson website.
“This effort is about doing research differently. We’re bringing researchers and industry leaders together. At Cornell Atkinson we see this as essential to moving research to impact,” said Alan Martinez, Climate and Nature Finance Strategic Partnerships Lead at Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.
Connect: @FoundationFAR
Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability is the hub for sustainability research at Cornell University. By connecting Cornell research with government agencies, nonprofits, and industry partners, the center accelerates work to reduce climate risks, advance energy transitions, strengthen food security, and support One Health. Grounded in a research-to-impact mission, Cornell Atkinson maximizes the university’s influence on public opinion, corporate practices, product innovation, and government policies related to sustainability.
Connect: Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, @AtkinsonCenter
Environmental Defense Fund
With more than 3 million members, Environmental Defense Fund creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. To do so, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships to turn solutions into action.
Connect: https://www.edf.org/