24-04-2025
27 employees impacted by loss of UI grant
Apr. 24—MOSCOW — A University of Idaho professor says the termination of a nearly $59 million USDA grant caused an "enormous disruption" to a university research project.
Sanford Eigenbrode, an entomology professor, was co-director of the project being funded by the USDA grant, called the Innovated Agriculture and Marketing Partnership project (IAMP).
The IAMP project, which is also co-directed by UI professor Erin Brooks, was supposed to help Idaho growers use climate-smart agricultural practices. That includes incentivising them to make crops more resilient to a fluctuating climate, and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
It was the largest grant in the University of Idaho's history. More than 200 Idaho growers applied to take part in the project.
On April 13, the USDA notified UI that it planned to terminate the grant. Eigenbrode said the termination became official Tuesday.
"It caused enormous disruption to stop so quickly," he said.
He said 27 UI employees lost funding for their positions. That includes part-time and full-time employees, students and administrative personnel.
"It was a five-year grant, so we hired people with that in mind and people were employed with that expectation," Eigenbrode said.
