HARTFORD – Today, U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representative Joe Courtney (D-2) applauded the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announcement that it will award approximately $1.5 million to the University of Connecticut (UConn) to support agricultural research. 

“These critical grants will support groundbreaking research to help increase prosperity in rural Connecticut,” the lawmakers said. “Rural communities are the backbone of our country’s economy, and this innovative research at UConn will boost rural economic growth and sustainability.” 

The funding is awarded to UConn for research on Agricultural Economics and Rural Communities through three separate grants of approximately $500,000 each from the Agriculture Food Research Initiative Foundational program. One will support research specifically focused on environment and natural resources, and the other two will support researched focused on economics, market, and trade.