The CLIM3ATE-RP (California Livestock Methane Measurement, Mitigation, and Thriving Environments Research Program) is a research funding initiative administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Office of Agricultural Resilience and Sustainability (OARS).
CLIM3ATE-RP was launched with funds from the Budget Act of 2021 (SB 170, Chapter 240) to support applied research that advances California's climate goals and strengthens the long-term environmental and economic sustainability of the state's livestock sector.
Program Focus Areas
CLIM3ATE-RP funds research in three critical areas related to methane emissions and manure management in livestock operations:
Verification of Methane Reduction Strategies
This impact area supports work to improve and validate greenhouse gas estimates for projects funded under CDFA's Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP) and Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP). Two projects were awarded funds in this impact area.
- Bubblelogy was awarded funds for a project which aims to create a comprehensive dataset of emissions and air quality from dairies with and without AMMP and DDRDP using new data collection methods, including a mobile air quality lab with remote sensing and data mining.
- The University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources was awarded funding for a project that would assess the complete costs of annual operation and maintenance of actual compost bedded pack barns and mechanical separators while quantifying separation efficiency of mechanical separator systems and evaluating the moisture levels and composting efficiency in compost bedded pack barns.
Alternative Methane Emissions Reduction Strategies
Three grants were awarded to advance research by funding projects addressing alternative methane reduction strategies, including enteric methane emissions reducing products.
The three projects awarded for this impact area were:
- Mooteric LLC. was awarded funding for field studies evaluating seaweed-based feed additives for their potential to reduce methane in livestock digestion.
- UC Davis Hess Lab was funded to evaluate nutritional research investigating the potential of by-product feeding as a methane mitigation strategy.
- UC Davis was given an award for the development of a standardized framework for designing and evaluating enteric methane research protocols, creating more consistency and comparability across studies. This tool is publicly available here.
Manure Recycling and Innovative Product Development
CDFA-OARS MRIP Working Group recommended OARS explore areas for manure recycling and product development. CLIM3ATE awarded FYTO, Inc. a grant to evaluate the use of Lemna (duckweed) for nutrient recovery from digester effluent. This project addresses both methane reduction and nitrogen management by transforming digestate into a nutrient-dense biomass—offering a sustainable, circular solution rooted in science and innovation.
Impact
The CLIM3ATE-RP research solicitation is closed. The application period for the 2022 cycle closed on February 28, 2023.
In the 2022 funding cycle, CDFA awarded six research projects totaling $4.7 million in funding. The list of awarded projects is available: 2022 Awarded Projects
Past Solicitations
Below are links to application materials for previously awarded projects: