Grants Available for Sustainable Pest Management
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has announced $4.9 million in funding available for the 2026 Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) Grants Program to support the transition to safer, more sustainable pest management practices in California. Applications for up to $1,000,000 are due October 14, 2025.
What is the purpose of this grant program?
The SPM Grants Program is designed to advance SPM practices through integrated pest management (IPM) research, knowledge, tools, outreach, and implementation in agricultural, urban, or wildland settings. Projects should focus on reducing impacts to public health or the environment from pesticides of high regulatory interest.
Successful proposal applications will demonstrate strong research, partnerships, outreach, and/or educational or training components to promote SPM and the broad application of the proposed SPM practices. The most successful SPM grant projects will be those that are likely to strongly decrease usage of pesticides of high regulatory interest, serve as a model for similar situations, and have a high potential for wide adoption.
What are the program priorities?
The most competitive applications will address the priority topic areas listed below, decrease usage of pesticides of high regulatory interest, serve as a model for similar situations, and have a high potential for wide adoption.
The priority topic areas are:
- Weed management
- Rodenticide use
- Fumigant use
- Use of pesticides that are of high regulatory interest (based on DPR’s Pesticide Use Reporting data) or are present on DPR’s Continuous Evaluation and Mitigation Update report
- Two or more of the three sustainability pillars in the SPM Roadmap:
- Human Health and Social Equity
- Environmental Protections
- Economic Vitality
Who is eligible to apply?
Eligible applicants may include (but are not limited to) entities such as government and tribal agencies, universities, colleges, consultants, pest control businesses, commodity groups, and nonprofit organizations. Principal investigators, key personnel, subrecipients, subcontractors, and consultants must not have outstanding fines or penalties with DPR or with any county agricultural commissioner.
What funding is available?
This year, DPR has requested a total of $4,900,000 for SPM Grants Program funding with the final program funding availability to be determined pending budget approval. Projects with budgets between $50,000 and $1,000,000 and timelines up to three years in length are invited to apply.
What is the application timeline?
Applications are due by October 14, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.
Award notifications are anticipated in Spring 2026.
The project period is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2029.
The full solicitation is available here.
For more information on this grant or how to apply with Morrison’s assistance, please contact the Morrison Grants Team by email at grants@morrisonco.net or call us at 530-893-4764.