The solicitation will indicate the date for submission of applications and the number of application copies required to apply for a grant. In addition, the solicitation will provide the address to which the application, the required number of accompanying duplicate copies, and any other required forms and materials should be sent.

Applications addressing a particular national need area at a particular Fellowship level (master's, doctoral or postdoctoral) will be evaluated in competition with other applications addressing the same national need area at the same level. Both USDA internal staff and the panelists will evaluate applications on the basis of the criteria published in the solicitation.