Grants / Department of Defense / Engineer Research and Development Center

W81EWF-24-SOI-0036: Developing biotechnologies for detection and recovery of Rare Earth Elements

Closed Closed September 6, 2024 Opportunity W81EWF-24-SOI-0036 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: ERDC Broad Agency Announcement (W912HZ26S0001). Status: Closes January 1, 2027 (55 days left). It is in our archive of Engineer Research and Development Center notices from 2024.

• Award ceiling$275,000
• Total funding$825,000
• Expected awards1
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

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)

This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU). Disclosures of current and pending support made in this application may render an applicant ineligible for funding. Prior to award and throughout the period of performance, ERDC may continue to request updated continuing and pending support information, which will be reviewed and may result in discontinuation of funding. Religious organizations are entitled to compete on equal footing with secular organizations for Federal financial assistance as described in E.O. 13798, “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.”

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering awards averaged $1.1 million; this notice allows up to $275,000 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

This project will develop novel microbes with increased capability to dissolve and capture REE from solid sources such as crushed ore and e-waste. The project will also examine approaches to increase the selectivity and affinity of biomolecules for different REE. Additionally, the project will investigate different technologies/approaches that improve scalability of REE recovery processes (e.g. concentration and monitoring of REEs during processing). The ultimate goal of this effort is to develop methods that accelerate our ability to recover individual or discrete mixtures of REE from domestic primary and secondary sources. Objective 1: Increase the selectivity and affinity of biomolecules for different REE. We will create semi-synthetic platforms for specific lanthanide-binding, relying on modification of proteins and spores using designed chemical structures for chelation moieties. We anticipate that these will greatly improve the already robust concentration of lanthanides by spores and proteins, while providing methods for tuning protein/spore affinity and selectivity. The specificities of both the semi-synthetic and protein-alone chelators will be further modified using computational models to design peptides and proteins with a variety of affinities and specificities for REE. Objective 2: Technologies/approaches that improve scalability of REE recovery processes. We will alter the surfaces of fluorescent proteins in order to create protein biosensors that can bind lanthanides with high affinity and selectivity, and also allow FRET detection both in vitro and in vivo of lanthanides (samarium, europium, terbium, and dysprosium). Such biosensors will serve as extraordinary tools for monitoring the efficiencies of processing streams and of the efficacies of different technologies. We will also work with ERDC researchers to examine novel approaches to condense process streams to increase efficiency of downstream processing events. Objective 3: Develop novel microbes with increased capability to dissolve and capture REE from solid matrices. Microbes will be metabolically engineered to dissolve REE and capture REE from solid matrices. Organisms will be able to concentrate lanthanides, and then themselves be concentrated from waste streams.

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, W912HZ26S0001, which is open now.

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