The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces a plan to provide up to $9 million for research on re-engineering microbes both for the production of advanced biofuels and other bioproducts and for the upcycling of polymers to reduce the environmental impact of discarded plastics. An aim of the biofuels research is to develop methods to cost-effectively convert plant biomass directly into advanced, energy-dense transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel. The goal of the polymer upcycling effort, meanwhile, is to develop microbial approaches to converting discarded plastics into fuels, industrial chemicals, and other high-value products as a way of ultimately reducing the environmental impact of plastic waste. Research is expected to make use of a range of sophisticated genomics and other “omics” (e.g., transcriptomics, metabolomics) techniques as well as tools of computation biology.
Applications will be open to universities, industry, and nonprofits as the lead institution, with potential collaborators at the DOE national laboratories and other federal agencies. Funding is to be awarded competitively, based on peer review, and is expected to be in the form of three-year grants beginning in the current fiscal year. Total planned funding is up to $9 million over three years, contingent on congressional appropriations.
The Bioimaging Science program within DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) supports research to create a versatile toolbox for imaging biological processes occurring within and among cells in living plants and microorganisms. These enabling capabilities seek to advance understanding that underpins DOE energy and environmental missions. Applications are requested for fundamental research enabling new bioimaging instrumentation capabilities to study plant and microbial systems in areas such as bioenergy research or other disciplines that BER supports.
Applications are requested for systems biology-driven, basic research on the fundamental principles of sustainable bioenergy feedstocks in relationship to their ecosystem context. Proposed projects should be hypothesis-driven and focus on understanding feedstock productivity and the effects of nutrient availability and abiotic stresses (e.g., drought, heat, salt, light, etc.). A deep understanding of these processes and their integration into predictive modeling frameworks will enable the potential development of bioenergy crops that require less agronomic inputs, are tolerant to climatic and environmental stressors, and are resilient and/or adaptable to changing conditions. Species of interest include, but are not limited to, candidate bioenergy crops such as sorghum, energy cane, Miscanthus, switchgrass, Populus, etc., as well as non-food oilseed crops such as Camelina. Field research is encouraged as well as simplified laboratory environments as long as they result in knowledge that can be extrapolated to field settings. [More]
The DOE Office of Science is pleased to announce that the SCGSR program is now accepting applications for the 2020 Solicitation 1.Applications are due 5:00 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. Detailed information about the program, including eligibility requirements and access to the online application system, can be found at: https://science.osti.gov/wdts/scgsr/.
The SCGSR program supports supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to conduct part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE national laboratory/facility in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist for a period of 3 to 12 consecutive months—with the goal of preparing graduate students for scientific and technical careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission.
For any questions, please contact the SCGSR Program Manager, Dr. Ping Ge, at sc.scgsr@science.doe.gov.
Previous funding opportunities. See also the Office of Science announcement archive.
