The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) 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 ET that will provide an opportunity for researchers to build new relationships with industry partners. 

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. Projects are expected to co-design research questions with at least one industry partner (e.g., lender, insurer, agribusiness) to ensure the findings are actionable.

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 open a request for proposals in January 2026. More funding opportunity details will be available on the Cornell Atkinson website. 

Timeline:

• December 11, 2025 – 2 p.m. EST: Informational webinar (Register)
• January 2026: Application portal opens
• March 2026: Letters of Intent due
• May 2026: Full applications due