You will find very little information about getting a land grant from the United States government. This has historically been reserved for schools or universities to better educate the masses. Finding information on the subject proves to be very difficult. They are extremely difficult to come by unless you have a worthy cause.
The best way to secure a United States government land grant would be by creating some sort of school or university. It must be within the objectives of the government before it would ever be considered. If your ambitions are industrial or commercial in nature, you will have a much more difficult time getting through the door.
One of the most approved proposals if you do decide to go the land grant route are schools that are unique or cater to a segment of the population that is under served. For example, many land grants were created for the black and Hispanic communities. Many of the schools still in operation today were developed with government land grant money. They have a much higher rate of approval than anything else.
Land grants were enacted to develop more avenues for the farming and technical sector of the US. It is necessary to define enough land to keep these two sectors thriving. There is about one land grant in each state. You can do some local research to see how many of them are actually approved. Land grants costs the government a lot of money so they scrutinize every aspect of the application. They evaluate everything from the cost of the pencils to final construction costs. If you are interested in building some sort of school a land grant is definitely worth your consideration.
As you could imagine, the government receives millions of grant proposals a year. If yours is poorly written it will be discarded and never even considered. It may be to your advantage to secure the services of a grant consultant that will help you in the application process, especially if it is your first time doing this sort of work.