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Although physiological monitoring has been conducted since the earliest human flights, there has not been substantial improvement in the technology of the sensors used in space since those early years. The current systems on the International Space Station (ISS) are still using wet-prep electrodes - which are time consuming and inconvenient, requiring shaving, application of electrodes, signal checks, and management of lead wires. Skin irritation sometimes develops from the electrode's interactions with roughened skin.

The purpose of the NASA Advanced Food Technology Project is to develop, evaluate and deliver food technologies for human centered spacecraft that will support crews on long duration missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Safe, nutritious, acceptable, and varied shelf-stable foods with a shelf life of 3 - 5 years will be required to support the crew during these exploration missions. Concurrently, the food system must efficiently balance appropriate vehicle resources such as mass, volume, water, air, waste, power, and crew time.

The Human Research Program (HRP) is an applied research and technology program aimed at providing human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration. HRP's specific objectives include development of technologies that serve to reduce human systems resource requirements, such as mass, volume, and power to maximize utilization of spaceflight platforms to perform the essential research and technology development tasks that can only be accomplished during a space mission.

Addressing multiple Human Research Program (HRP) human health and performance risks and knowledge gaps across various disciplines requires collection, preservation and analysis of biological samples from human subjects during a space mission, a common practice in clinical diagnostic medicine.

The Forests and Related Resources topic area aims to address the health, diversity and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations through the development of environmentally sound approaches to increase productivity of forest lands and develop value-added materials derived from woody resources.  New technologies are needed to enhance the protection of the Nation’s forested lands and forest resources and help to ensure the continued existence of healthy and productive forest ecosystems.  Proposals focused on sustainable bi

The objective of this topic area is to examine means of enhancing crop production by applying biological approaches to reduce the impact of harmful agents, develop new methods for plant improvement, and apply traditional plant breeding methods and new technologies to develop new food and non-food crop plants, as well as new genotypes of existing crop plants with characteristics that allow their use in new commercial applications. This topic area supports the following NIFA Societal Challenge Areas: Global Food Security and Hunger; Climate Change; Sustainable bioenergy; and Food Safety.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations predicts that feeding the world’s growing population will require a doubling of global food production by 2050.  Fulfilling this need will require new technologies to improve both productivity and efficiency of food animals. The Animal Production and Protection topic area aims to develop innovative, marketable technologies that will provide significant benefit to the production and protection of agricultural animals.

The Air, Water and Soils topic area aims to develop technologies for conserving and protecting air, water and soil resources while sustaining optimal farm and forest productivity.

The Food Science and Nutrition topic area aims to fund projects that support research focusing on developing new and improved processes, technologies, or services that address emerging food safety issues. The program will fund projects that develop novel rapid detection methods for food-borne pathogens and toxic metabolites to reduce food contamination and food-borne illnesses.

During the last 30 years, dramatic social, economic and technological changes have occurred in many rural areas in the United States.  Although farming continues to be an important source of income, most of rural America is moving from an agrarian to post-agrarian economy.  The results of this transformation have been uneven across the rural landscape.  Some communities are facing economic decline and rural exodus, while in other communities, especially those in areas near large urban centers or rich in natural amenities, economic and population growth have accelerated.