EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES POLICY NEWSLETTER
October 6, 2020 | Lewis-Burke Associates LLC
A View from Washington
The political outlook leading into the November elections has become more uncertain this month due to the sudden death of liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Immediately following Justice Ginsburg's death, Members of Congress debated the appropriateness of filling the vacant seat within weeks of a presidential election, given the precedent set in 2016 blocking the confirmation President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, because it was the last year of President Obama’s term. Despite this conflict, on September 26, President Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett, a judge from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, as his nominee.
Judge Barrett is known as a strong conservative and was mentored by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She has a limited judicial record, including on environmental issues, given that much of her career has been as a professor rather than serving on the bench. She has, however, indicated a general willingness to overturn past precedent, which could mean a narrowing of environmental regulations and protections under long-standing environmental legislation including the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act. Another potential consequence of a 6-3 conservative majority is that it could impact the cases that the Supreme Court decides to consider as the Court requires four justices to agree to put a case on its docket. This could mean that challenges to environmental regulatory rollbacks would be harder to successfully get in front of the Court.
The nomination now faces new obstacles including the recent outbreak of COVID-19 among Republicans who came into contact with the President, likely at Judge Barrett’s nomination ceremony. Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Committee responsible for advancing her nomination to the full Senate, have tested positive, threatening Republican’s quorum and possibly delaying the confirmation vote. Despite this setback, at most, the diagnoses would only delay confirmation to after the election. The nomination also coincides with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) push to pass another large COVID-19 recovery package to support individual Americans, businesses, and some research agencies, including the National Science Foundation. While the prospects for successful negotiations on this package are dwindling, Senate Republicans may be motivated to support the package if the White House and House Democrats strike a deal to avoid poor optics resulting from staying in session to advance the Supreme Court nominee but refusing to pass a COVID-19 recovery package.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Congressional Updates
Agency and Administration Updates
Funding Opportunities
Congressional Updates
Congress Passed a Continuing Resolution to Fund the Government
On September 30, with one day left in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 calendar, the Senate passed and the President signed a Continuing Resolution (CR) on an 84-10 vote to fund the government at mostly FY 2020 funding levels. The stopgap measure, proposed and advanced by the House on September 22 with a bipartisan vote of 359-57, was signed by the President shortly after to avoid a looming October 1 shutdown. The CR, which hurdled through major sticking points in the Senate on an end date, runs through December 11 and stretches FY 2020 federal funding at a level of $1.4 trillion. House leadership and the Administration agreed to a clean bill, meaning the bill does not contain new provisions relating to Coronavirus relief or controversial additions such as green subsidies and blanket student loan forgiveness that have been previously attempted in COVID-19 relief funding. However, some adjustments to the funding available to agencies and extension of authorities, which are known as anomalies, were included. The CR prevents agencies from starting new programs or projects, and modifies or renews provisions that were set to expire such as $13.7 billion for highway funding, $8 billion in nutrition assistance for low-income families, and extending funding for community health centers, among other programs.
Various environment-related anomalies appear in the final version of the CR. The following is an overview of key environmental provisions, including cuts and extensions of programs.
- The CR would reduce or eliminate discretionary funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which authorizes NOAA Fisheries to enter into agreements with any State that establishes and maintains an "adequate and active" program for the conservation of endangered and threatened species. The fund will now be covered by mandatory funding under the Great American Outdoors Act.
- Relating to disasters, the CR would expand the Federal Emergency Management Agency—Disaster Relief Fund to allow the agency to respond to declared disasters. The CR would also extend the National Flood Insurance Program.
- The CR would entirely cut the Land Acquisition activities within the Bureau of Land Management and United States Fish and Wildlife Service, including funds from “projects with cost savings or failed or partially failed projects.” Land acquisition funding was previously proposed for significant cuts in the President’s FY 2021 budget request for the Department of the Interior.
- The CR would cut the state assistance program within the National Park Service and Forest Service programs, which provides technical and financial assistance to states for forest health management.
The CR follows the Senate’s failure to propose their version of FY 2021 appropriations, despite the House finalizing their budget marks this past summer. Appropriators in the House and Senate have committed to trying to pass an omnibus spending measure by the end of the CR on December 11. In addition to appropriations, issues relating to coronavirus relief funding, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and an energy research innovation package will likely be taken up in a lame duck session. The productivity of a lame-duck session depends on the outcome of the presidential election and resulting political power shifts.
Sources and Additional Information
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Supports Offshore Energy Technology in Hearing
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski led a hearing on offshore energy technologies on September 22 and was effusive discussing the potential for offshore energy generation from sources including wind and marine hydrokinetic energy. Witnesses included Daniel Simmons, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy (DOE), Dr. Walter Cruikshank, Acting Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), as well as industry and non-profit representatives.
Given that she represents Alaska, Chairman Murkowski is particularly interested in energy technologies that can make isolated regions more energy independent and resilient. Witnesses also addressed alternative maritime fuels, among other energy technologies and sources, with Ranking Member Joe Manchin (D-WV) noting that maritime fuels make up 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member Manchin, and witnesses all pushed for the Senate to advance the Energy Innovation Act to support energy research and development in these areas; the House already passed their version of the bill on September 24.
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Agency and Administration Updates
NOAA Holds Tense Science Advisory Board Meeting; New Agency Leaders to be Installed
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) held a meeting of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) with the goal of doing a final evaluation of its priority areas for SAB study in 2021. In previous SAB meetings, the group narrowed and wrote descriptions of 13 potential topics of study. In the interim, the topics were scored by members of the SAB and NOAA Working Group chairs resulting in a list of the top five topics that the SAB was to vote to approve at this meeting:
- Coastal Resilience Tools;
- Climate Observations;
- Rapidly Changing Marine Environment;
- Earth System Prediction and Predictability; and
- Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Following the introduction of the SAB’s highest scoring topics, NOAA leadership, including Deputy NOAA Administrator Tim Gallaudet and Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs, introduced their own set of four priorities:
- Earth System Prediction & Predictability;
- Application of Emerging S&T and Public Private Partnerships to Monitor and Predict Changes in the United States’ Living Marine Resources;
- Integrating Social and Behavioral Sciences into Every NOAA Mission Area; and
- Scientific Studies to Investigate China’s Impacts on the Environment.
There was initial confusion from the members of the SAB as to why NOAA leadership was also listing their priority topics given the work that had already been done by the Board. The confusion was met with a strained back and forth about the role of the SAB in determining priorities in addition to concerns about the political undertones of NOAA leadership’s proposed topic, Evaluating China’s Impact on the Environment.
Ultimately, the SAB decided to combine several of their own suggestions with those of NOAA leadership and to delay the final vote until the October meeting so the topics and their written rationales can be reworked by members of the SAB. The final list of topics that the Board will have edit and prepare to vote on next month are:
- A combined version of the SAB and NOAA leadership’s Earth System Prediction and Predictability topics.
- A combined version of the SAB’s Rapidly Changing Marine Environment topic and NOAA leadership’s Living Marine Resources topic.
- A combined version of the SAB and NOAA leadership’s Social and Behavioral Sciences topics
- Climate Observations— This topic was not included in NOAA leadership’s list, but the SAB was not willing to move forward without it.
- Coastal Resilience Tools—This topic was not included in NOAA leadership’s list, but the SAB was not willing to move forward without it.
- A reworked version of NOAA leadership’s topic on Scientific Studies to Investigate China’s Impacts on the Environment. This topic will be rewritten by SAB members in collaboration with Dr. Gallaudet.
While there is not a set number of topics that must be chosen, the SAB indicated that they would like to narrow the list down to five topics. The chosen topics will be major foci of the SAB and are indicators of the areas NOAA is looking to expand and improve upon.
This tense meeting came just days after the Trump Administration announced its intentions to appoint Ryan Maue as NOAA’s Chief Scientist, replacing the well-liked Acting Chief, Craig McLean. Dr. Maue has been a controversial figure for his history of climate change denial and partisan attacks on those who want to push more strict environmental policies. In addition, Dr. David Legates will also be taking up the role of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Observation and Prediction. He also has controversial credentials as a professor of climatology at the University of Delaware who has questioned the role of humans in causing climate change and other key principals of climate science. Neither the Chief Scientist nor the Deputy Assistant Secretary appointments were directly acknowledged during the SAB meeting.
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USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Censky Announces Departure
On September 18, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Deputy Secretary, Stephen Censky, will be departing on November 8, 2020 after roughly two years at USDA. Deputy Secretary Censky will return to the role of CEO of the American Soybean Association (ASA) on November 9, a position in which he previously served in for 21 years. Mr. Censky began his career working as a legislative assistant for Senator Jim Abdnor (R-SD). Later he served in both the Reagan and George H. W. Bush Administrations at USDA, eventually serving as Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service where he was involved in running the nation’s export programs.
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HHS Seeks Input on Screening Guidance for Synthetic Double-Stranded DNA
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input on possible changes to the
Screening Framework Guidance for Providers of Synthetic Double-Stranded DNA, which aims to safeguard against potentially harmful double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) products being obtained by parties with malicious intent. The
Screening Framework Guidance, published in 2010, provides recommendations for providers of dsDNA to screen both customers and sequences of dsDNA products for potential concern. It is specifically focused on preventing access to harmful agents included on the federal government’s Select Agents and Toxins list, as well as agents on the Commerce Control List (CCL).
As technologies associated with dsDNA production, manipulation, and expression have advanced significantly since 2010, the
Screening Framework Guidance is now being revisited to assess what updates, if any, need to be made. HHS is seeking feedback in several specific areas as it considers revising the
Screening Framework Guidance, including the scope of the guidance, strategies for sequence screening, biosecurity measures, customer screening, minimizing the burden of the guidance, and technologies subject to the guidance. Full details about each of these topics can be found in the Federal Register Notice for this RFI. While the guidance itself is targeted towards providers of dsDNA, researchers who work with dsDNA products and those with expertise in genomics and bioinformatics may be well-positioned to contribute to the technical aspects of this RFI, such as commenting on which tools and techniques should be used to screen dsDNA sequences and what technologies and products should be subjected to screening, as well as on their experiences as consumers of dsDNA products.
Responses to this RFI must be submitted no later than 12:00 pm ET on
October 25, 2020. Comments should be submitted through a web form on the
Screening Framework Guidance site.
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NIEHS Holds Fall Advisory Council Meeting, Focuses on Diversity and Workforce Issues
On September 15, the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council, which serves to advise the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), held its fall meeting. Key topics included COVID-19 activities and diversity, equity, and inclusion at NIEHS. This advisory council meets three times a year to discuss ongoing activities within NIEHS, broader trends at the NIH relevant to the environmental health sciences community, and review concept clearances for future programs.
In his Director’s Report, Dr. Rick Woychik provided an overview of the current legislative climate as it impacts NIH and NIEHS specifically, focusing on fiscal year (FY) 2021 appropriations and emergency legislation related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Woychik highlighted NIEHS’ contributions to the response to COVID-19, notably through the NIH Public Health Emergency and Disaster Research Response (DR2) program in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine (NLM). This program, initiated in April 2020, has been cultivating a new collection of resources and tools for epidemiologists, clinicians, and other scientists studying COVID-19, and has grown to include over 80 data collection tools and instruments available to the broader community.
Aligned with wider trends across NIH and federal funding agencies as a whole, a significant line of discussion at this meeting focused on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, both within the context of the scientific workforce and in research projects supported by NIEHS. In his Director’s Report, Dr. Woychik acknowledged that identifying systemic racism at NIEHS and corresponding actions for change was a high priority for him personally, and noted four focus areas for efforts moving forward: training and education; science of racism and environmental health disparities; workplace diversity at all levels; and culture and inclusion within the Institute. Presentations from Dr. Chandra Jackson from NIEHS’ intramural program (“Social and Environmental Determinants as well as Health Consequences of Sleep Disparities”) and Dr. Hannah Valantine, NIH’s outgoing Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity (“Bias and Systemic Racism in Academic Health Care: NIH Strategies for Change”) reinforced this theme.
Two concept clearances were reviewed and approved at this meeting, both for the continuation of existing programs. The first, the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Program (ONES), provides research grants to early stage investigators paired with mentoring and dedicated funding for professional development and career engagement activities. NIEHS defines the goal of this program as supporting “promising and highly motivated early stage investigators who intend to make a long-term commitment to environmental research and provide a mechanism to jump-start their career trajectory in pursuit of novel science programs.” The second, the Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary, Environmental Health Research (RIVER) program, uses NIH’s R35 award mechanism, which provides support for research activities around a broader theme rather than for specific projects, giving investigators more stability and flexibility than traditional grant mechanisms. The goal of RIVER is to support “currently funded NIEHS grantees that have demonstrated the potential for continued innovative research and provide support for the majority of their established independent research program.”
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USAID Increases its Attention on Food Security and Announces New Awards and Upcoming Opportunities
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick announced several new awards and one upcoming funding opportunity under its Feed the Future Innovation Lab in a Congressional event on September 17. In addition, on September 29, USAID also requested comments on a draft Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Horticulture. The Feed the Future Innovation Labs are a dedicated mechanism led by the USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security for U.S.-based universities to develop innovative approaches to agriculture and food security related challenges in a development context. The upcoming opportunities and new awards include:
- Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health – A $6 million award to Washington State University, with an additional $10 million in potential funding, to combat East Coast Fever, a lethal livestock disease in East Africa that threatens food security and nutrition.
- Innovation to Impact Initiative at the Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab – $1 million award to University of Illinois, to launch a new initiative to leverage the Lab's expertise in effectively commercializing new technologies to address food security issues.
- Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems – Extension of the lab led by the University of Florida, for five more years. The Lab focuses on improving livestock productivity and encouraging healthier diets through the consumption of nutritious foods.
- (Forecasted Opportunity) Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats to Crops – This lab will focus on some of the latest innovations and discoveries with respect to pest management. The new funding opportunity is expected to be published in November.
- (Request for comment) Draft Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Horticulture – This lab is proposed to identify and strengthen opportunities for smallholder farmers to develop and sustainably manage horticulture-based enterprises in production systems central to the Feed the Future Initiative. Commentary and feedback on the draft concept are requested by October 20.
Each of these awards will address vulnerabilities of the food supply chain and should assist communities in becoming more resilient to the impacts of COVID-19. The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), an academic advisory panel which advises USAID on agriculture and higher education issues pertinent to food insecurity in developing countries, presented data during its 181
st and 182
nd meetings (June 4 and September 14, respectively) to show that COVID-19 and related economic impacts risk erasing seven or more years of progress in nutrition and food assistance. Accordingly, BIFAD members advocated for the strengthening of national food policy systems as a high priority in the COVID-19 policy response and rebuilding plans to avoid irrevocable impacts on mortality and lost potential. The 183
rd BIFAD meeting will take place on October 13 and will focus on the implications of data collected from successful agricultural and economic transformations for USAID’s agricultural and food security development and social safety net priorities and programming. Registration details are included below.
Sources and Additional Information:
International Discussions Arise Surrounding Digital Sequence Information of Genetic Resources
Countries who are party to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol (NP) will consider whether the existing access and benefit sharing (ABS) framework may be expanded to regulate digital sequence information (DSI), in addition to
physical biological resources, at their next biodiversity conference in 2021. While the definition and scope of the term “DSI” is still not agreed upon by parties, the most common understanding of DSI embraces the sequences of nucleotide found in DNA and RNA, including those found in public databases. As proposed, the expansion of ABS under the NP to include DSI could dramatically impact scientific research by placing limitations on scientists’ ability to share, publish, and utilize genetic sequence data derived from genetic resources with origins outside of their home country.
Although industry, academia, and several developed countries are opposed to expanding the coverage of the NP to DSI, the discussion on this topic has become highly politicized. Many developing countries have started to link the update of the post-2020 biodiversity framework to an outcome on DSI and ABS. While the United States has opposed the potential expansion of the NP to include DSI under its access and benefit sharing provisions, it does not participate in the negotiations since it is not party to either the CBD or the NP. For this reason, the European Union and the United Kingdom will play a significant role in determining the outcome of the negotiations and in advocating for an outcome that will not limit international scientific collaboration and sharing of DSI.
For those interested in the DSI/ABS issue, there upcoming events to understand the European perspective and potential approaches to seeking agreement:
- Webinar/virtual report launch: Finding compromise on ABS & DSI in the CBD: Requirements & policy ideas from a scientific perspective, hosted by the WiLDSI project, an interdisciplinary research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) led by the Leibniz Institutes DSMZ and IPK Gatersleben to research viable open access benefit-sharing policy options for DSI and proactively involve scientific stakeholders. October 7, 2020 8:00-10:30 a.m. EDT
- Online Seminar: Introduction to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing in the UK, hosted by the University of Aberdeen. October 14, 2020 9:00-10:30 a.m. EDT
Sources and Additional Information:
NSF BIO Transitions “No Deadline” Solicitations to Research.gov
In a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) released on September 29, the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that many of its “no deadline” submissions are migrating from the current FastLane system to the new Research.gov platform. As described in NSF’s September 22 “Important Notice No. 147,” the agency has been developing Research.gov for some time as part of a broader research management modernization effort, which aims to improve the user experience and reduce administrative burden for researchers, administrators, and organizations. Currently, activities such as preparation and submission of annual and final project and outcomes reports, most notifications and requests, and award payments operate through Research.gov. With the September 29 DCL, NSF is now taking proactive steps to shift all proposal preparation and submission into this new modernized system, with the aim of having the move to Research.gov complete by 2022.
BIO is leading the pilot efforts for this migration by requiring that proposal submission occur through Research.gov for its core “no deadline” solicitations in certain divisions. This is the first phase of an eventual transition in which all proposals will be submitted through the new system; this phased approach is designed to give researchers time to adjust to the new system. NSF has stated that they “do not anticipate that the change to Research.gov will have significant impacts on the submission process, and this migration will not affect the merit review process in any way.”
Of particular note to the environmental community, solicitations for funding through core programs within the Division of Environmental Biology will be affected by this shift to Research.gov. A full list of programs included in the initial migration can be found in the DCL linked below. For impacted programs, revised solicitations will be issued in the coming weeks. To support the community through this migration, technical support, FAQs, and videos on proposal submission through Research.gov are available. NSF is also offering a series of BIO-wide virtual office hours during which researchers can discuss their questions on the process with BIO program officers.
Source and Additional Information
Funding Opportunities
NSF Releases Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks Solicitation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a new cross-agency solicitation for Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks (SRS RNs) to advance convergent science, engineering, and education research to create more sustainable regional systems. The Research Networks will seek understanding of the connections between rural and urban communities integrating data collection, outcomes, theories of change, generalizable theories, modeling, stakeholder participation, and equity analyses to advance sustainable connections between the natural and built environments as well as the social systems that work through them. Information generated by SRS RNs will help to inform decision making for sustainable improvements of regional systems including environmental and social equity issues. SRS RNs may study a single urban or metropolitan system and its connected rural regions, multiple urban-rural systems, or an aggregation of connected urban-rural systems.
The solicitation has two tracks:
- SRS RNs Full Scale Awards (Track 1) will fund up to $15 million over five years for fundamental convergent research, education, and outreach. Possible elements may include engineering and a variety of environmental topics including, but not limited to, biology, chemistry, atmospheric science, hydrology, recyclable plastics, and geology. Applicants should also embrace partnerships with universities, local governments, non-profits, and industry. Successful applications for track one must cover the scope and scale of the project, how the project is an example of convergent research, partnerships and stakeholder engagement plans, a diversity and inclusion strategy, and an education and education evaluation plan.
- SRS RNs Planning Grants (Track 2) will fund up to $150,000 for one year for the preparation of a future SRS RN Full Scale project. Successful applications for Track 2 must cover how the project is an example of convergent research, partnership and stakeholder engagement plans, and a diversity and inclusion strategy.
This solicitation follows release of the NSF Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education (AC-ERE) January 2018 report titled
Sustainable Urban Systems: Articulating a Long-Term Convergence Research Agenda which called for additional research into sustainable urban systems. Following a series of conference and workshop awards, NSF found that there is a need to study the wide-scale systems connecting urban and regional communities, spurring the creation of the SRS RN program. While NSF has funded several research networks of comparable sizes, SRS RNs are expected to “enable broader, more extensive, and more comprehensive SRS research and education than is currently possible elsewhere in NSF's portfolio.”
Due Date: Full proposals are due by
5:00 PM submitter’s local time on January 11, 2021.
Eligibility: Institutions of higher education, non-profits, and for-profit organizations are eligible to apply. There are no limits on the number of proposals that may be submitted per institution. Partnered institutions should have demonstrable collaboration benefits and early career faculty and students should be encouraged to participate.
Total Funding and Award Size: NSF anticipates a total of $31 million in funding for this round of the program, supporting three Full Scale Awards (Track 1) and 12-20 Planning Grants (Track 2).
Sources and Additional Information:
NIFA Releases Upcoming RFA Calendar
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) launched the Project CAFÉ (Collaboratively Achieving Functional Excellence) Initiative to better fulfill NIFA’s scientific mission by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery, as well as to reinforce and improve clarity, trust, consistency, and transparency between NIFA and both institutional stakeholders and employees. As part of this project, NIFA held a comment period from January to April 2020 soliciting feedback on NIFA’s performance.
In response to the feedback received from stakeholders in Project CAFÉ, NIFA has released target release dates for RFAs for the rest of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 to create a more streamlined process. The current list applies to continuations, directed, and second-year RFAs of a multi-year solicitation. Solicitations of relevance to ESA coming out in mid-December:
- Crop Protection and Pest Management: Applied Research and Development Program;
- Crop Protection and Pest Management: Extension Implementation;
- IR-4 Minor Crop Pest Management; and
- Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative.
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ARPA-E Announces Energy and Carbon Optimized Synthesis for the Bioeconomy Program
The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) released a $25 million funding opportunity for new technologies to improve the carbon efficiency of bioconversion platforms. The Energy and Carbon Optimized Synthesis for the Bioeconomy (ECOSynBio) program seeks to establish pathways for low-, zero-, or negative-carbon fuels, chemicals, and materials for a robust and secure U.S. bioeconomy. Ultimately, ARPA-E seeks to improve the carbon benefits of bioenergy products, increase generation of biofuels, and expand on previous ARPA-E projects to generate these technologies at scale. Specific topics of interest include:
- “Carbon optimized fermentation strains that avoid CO2 evolution;
- engineered mixotrophic consortia or systems that avoid CO2 evolution;
- biomass or gas fermentation with internal CO2 utilization;
- cell-free carbon optimized biocatalytic biomass conversion and/or CO2 utilization; and
- cross-cutting or other proposed carbon optimized bioconversion schemes.”
“Organic biomaterials” and “Synthetic Biology” are two of five key ARPA-E priorities through fiscal year (FY) 2021. For additional background, ARPA-E held a workshop in September 2019 on carbon-optimized bioconversion.
U.S. for-profit entities, educational institutions, and nonprofits are eligible to apply for funding as a standalone applicant. ARPA-E expects $25 million in funding for eight to twelve projects. Awards may range between $250,000 and $7 million with a period of performance not exceeding 36 months. Concept papers are required by
October 26, 2020 at
9:30 AM ET. If invited, the deadline for full applications is
TBD.
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