Two competitive grants are available to Iowa communities with less than 20,000 residents, the Iowa Economic Development Authority recently announced. The Rural Innovation Grant Program, which has up to $300,000 available, can be used to support creative, non-traditional ideas that focus on current issues and challenges faced by rural communities associated with the themes of community investment, growth and connection. The Rural Housing Assessment Grant Program, which has up to $100,000 available, can be used to support the use of publicly available online information through the “Profile of Iowa” tool and rural community efforts to interpret this hard data with supplemental information. The money can also be used to implement through changes to development codes, local ordinances and housing incentives specific to their community needs in partnership with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Applications are currently being accepted at iowagrants.gov and are due by May 1.