Grants / Department of Energy / Office of Science

DE-FOA-0002600: Biosystems Design to Enable Safe Production of Next-Generation Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biomaterials

Closed Closed April 7, 2022 Opportunity DE-FOA-0002600 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: Genesis Mission Graduate Fellowship Pilot (DE-FOA-0003673). Status: Closes January 12, 2027 (66 days left). It is in our archive of Office of Science notices from 2021.

• Award ceiling$25.0 million
• Award floor$5.0 million
• Total funding$110 million
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeGrant

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

All types of applicants are eligible to apply, except nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995.Federally affiliated entities must adhere to the eligibility standards below:1. DOE/NNSA National LaboratoriesDOE/NNSA National Laboratories are not eligible to submit applications under this FOA but may be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application. If recommended for funding as a proposed subrecipient, the value of the proposed subaward will be removed from the prime applicant’s award and will be provided to the laboratory through the DOE Field-Work Proposal System and work will be conducted under the laboratory’s contract with DOE. No administrative provisions of this FOA will apply to the laboratory or any laboratory subcontractor. Additional instructions for securing authorization from the cognizant Contracting Officer are found in Section VIII of this FOA.2. Non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCsNon-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs are not eligible to submit applications under this FOA but may be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application. If recommended for funding as a proposed subrecipient, the value of the proposed subaward may be removed from the prime applicant’s award and may be provided through an interagency agreement to the FFRDC’s sponsoring Federal Agency. Additional instructions for securing authorization from the cognizant Contracting Officer are found in Section VIII of this FOA.3. Other Federal AgenciesOther Federal Agencies are not eligible to submit applications under this FOA but may be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application. If recommended for funding as a proposed subrecipient, the value of the proposed subaward may be removed from the prime applicant’s award and may be provided through an interagency agreement. Additional instructions for providing statutory authorization are found in Section VIII of this FOA.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Office of Science Financial Assistance Program awards averaged $1.2 million; this notice allows up to $25.0 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (69% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

BER supports fundamental, interdisciplinary research to achieve a predictive systems-level understanding of Earth, environmental and biological systems. The overarching goals of the BER Program are to support transformative science to solve critical challenges in energy security and environmental stewardship. As part of its mission, BER invests in crosscutting technologies and programs to enable multiscale, systems-level research to achieve a predictive understanding of systems biology, biological community function, and environmental behavior. BSSD within BER aims to provide the necessary fundamental science to understand, predict, manipulate, and design biological processes that underpin innovations for bioenergy and bioproduct research and to enhance our understanding of natural environmental processes relevant to DOE. BSSD supports fundamental research to understand the systems biology of plants and microbes through the GSP. The GSP’s portfolio includes systems biology research that builds on a foundation of multi-omics data and integrates multidisciplinary experimental and computational approaches. Within this framework, one of the objectives of the GSP is to develop the next generation of genome engineering technologies to unlock the potential of plants and microorganisms for the safe and efficient conversion of renewable biomass, captured CO2 from the atmosphere, and/or petroleum-derived polymers into fuels, valuable chemicals, and materials with novel properties, advancing towards a sustainable and secure bioeconomy. The iterative application and testing of those engineering technologies to design living organisms with new functional properties also leads to a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles governing those organisms. Therefore, this “design, build, test, learn” (DBTL) cycle not only results in improved biosystems design, but also leads to a more comprehensive knowledge of relevant biological systems. During the last decade, the fields of systems and synthetic biology and artificial intelligence have seen momentous advances that have dramatically accelerated the DBTL cycle for engineering biology. More efficient approaches for genome-wide editing, analysis, and phenotyping become available, and new computational tools and modeling algorithms can handle increasingly large datasets while continuously improving their prediction accuracy.

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, DE-FOA-0003673, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.