Department of Energy to Provide $68 Million for Bioenergy Crop Research

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $68 million in funding over five years for basic research aimed at making bioenergy feedstock crops more productive and resilient. The research will cover several common bioenergy feedstocks, including sorghum, pennycress, and poplar, among others. The focus will be on the complex interactions among crops, soil, and soil microbes that impact productivity and stress resistance. The research will combine controlled field studies with computational modeling. Projects were chosen by competitive peer review under a DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement for Systems Biology Research to Advance Sustainable Bioenergy Crop Development, sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) within DOE’s Office of Science. Total funding is $68 million for projects lasting five years in duration, with $13 million in Fiscal Year 2020 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. See Press Release | List of Awards | PDF.