BER Cancels Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Production and Characterization of Proteins and Molecular Tags and Plans to Issue New Solicitation for GTL Bioenergy Research Centers

Summary

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science announced on March 28, 2006, that it is revising its plans for the deployment of new research facilities to support its Genomics:GTL program. As part of the reassessment, BER cancelled its FOA for a planned GTL Facility for the Production and Characterization of Proteins and Molecular Tags, issued in early January. The decision to reshape plans for the new GTL research facilities comes in response to the President s recently announced Advanced Energy Initiative and a review of the GTL program by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies. The specific goal of the new plan will be to accelerate GTL systems biology research in the area of bioenergy, with the objective of developing cost-effective, biologically based renewable energy sources to reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels. The Office of Science plans to issue a new solicitation in the coming months for one or more centers for bioenergy research. Centers focused on systems biology research into carbon sequestration and bioremediation are also being considered for future years.