Search Grant Opportunities

PLANT ENGINEERING TO REVOLUTIONIZE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION AND HEIGHTEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR NOVEL EFFICIENCY (PERSEPHONE)

ID: DE-FOA-0003551 • Type: Posted

Description

This is Modification 01 to the NOFO: Clarified the meaning of the Program Policy Factors in Section V.C. DE-FOA-0003551 - PLANT ENGINEERING TO REVOLUTIONIZE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION AND HEIGHTEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR NOVEL EFFICIENCY (PERSEPHONE) To obtain a copy of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) please go to ARPA-E eXCHANGE at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. To apply to this NOFO, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through ARPA-E eXCHANGE (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Registration.aspx). For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx). ARPA-E will not review or consider application materials submitted through other means. For problems with ARPA-E eXCHANGE, email ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov (with NOFO name and number in the subject line). Questions about this NOFO? Check the Frequently Asked Questions available at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/faq. For questions that have not already been answered, email ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov. Agency Overview: The Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E), an organization within the Department of Energy (DOE), is chartered by Congress in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-69), as amended by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358), as further amended by the Energy Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-260): (A) to enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that (i) reduce imports of energy from foreign sources; (ii) reduce energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; (iii) improve the energy efficiency of all economic sectors; (iv) provide transformative solutions to improve the management, clean-up, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel; and (v) improve the resilience, reliability, and security of infrastructure to produce, deliver, and store energy; and (B) to ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. ARPA-E issues this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) under its authorizing statute codified at 42 U.S.C. 16538. The NOFO and any cooperative agreements or grants made under this NOFO are subject to 2 C.F.R. Part 200 as supplemented by 2 C.F.R. Part 910. ARPA-E funds research on, and the development of, transformative science and technology solutions to address the energy and environmental missions of the Department. The agency focuses on technologies that can be meaningfully advanced with a modest investment over a defined period of time in order to catalyze the translation from scientific discovery to early-stage technology. For the latest news and information about ARPA-E, its programs and the research projects currently supported, see: http://arpa-e.energy.gov/. ARPA-E funds transformational research. Existing energy technologies generally progress on established learning curves where refinements to a technology and the economies of scale that accrue as manufacturing and distribution develop drive improvements to the cost/performance metric in a gradual fashion. This continual improvement of a technology is important to its increased commercial deployment and is appropriately the focus of the private sector or the applied technology offices within DOE. In contrast, ARPA-E supports transformative research that has the potential to create fundamentally new learning curves. ARPA-E technology projects typically start with cost/performance estimates well above the level of an incumbent technology. Given the high risk inherent in these projects, many will fail to progress, but some may succeed in generating a new learning curve with a projected cost/performance metric that is significantly better than that of the incumbent technology. ARPA-E will provide support at the highest funding level only for submissions with significant technology risk, aggressive timetables, and careful management and mitigation of the associated risks. ARPA-E funds technology with the potential to be disruptive in the marketplace. The mere creation of a new learning curve does not ensure market penetration. Rather, the ultimate value of a technology is determined by the marketplace, and impactful technologies ultimately become disruptive that is, they are widely adopted and displace existing technologies from the marketplace or create entirely new markets. ARPA-E understands that definitive proof of market disruption takes time, particularly for energy technologies. Therefore, ARPA-E funds the development of technologies that, if technically successful, have clear disruptive potential, e.g., by demonstrating capability for manufacturing at competitive cost and deployment at scale. ARPA-E funds applied research and development (R&D). The Office of Management and Budget defines applied research as an original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge...directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective and defines experimental development as creative and systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience, which is directed at producing new products or processes or improving existing products or processes. Applicants interested in receiving financial assistance for basic research (defined by the Office of Management and Budget as experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts ) should contact the DOE's Office of Science (http://science.energy.gov/). Office of Science national scientific user facilities (http://science.energy.gov/user-facilities/) are open to all researchers, including ARPA-E Applicants and awardees. These facilities provide advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nanoworld, the environment, and the atmosphere. Projects focused on early-stage R&D for the improvement of technology along defined roadmaps may be more appropriate for support through the DOE applied energy offices including: the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (http://www.eere.energy.gov/), the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (https://www.energy.gov/fecm/office-fossil-energy-and-carbon-management), the Office of Nuclear Energy (http://www.energy.gov/ne/office-nuclear-energy), and the Office of Electricity (https://www.energy.gov/oe/office-electricity). ARPA-E encourages submissions stemming from ideas that still require proof-of-concept R&D efforts as well as those for which some proof-of-concept demonstration already exists. Submissions can propose a project with the end deliverable being an extremely creative, but partial solution. Program Overview: The goal of the PERSEPHONE program is to develop disruptive new technologies for bioenergy crop genetic engineering. Bioenergy provides about 5% of domestic energy consumption and has the potential to provide 5-10% more. Agriculture also could revolutionize the energy sector in other ways, such as providing precursors for chemicals and materials that are currently derived from petroleum. However, bioenergy crops may not maintain their current utility, much less achieve their potential, without transformative advances in tools to engineer them. Genetic engineering is an essential strategy to realize U.S. bioenergy potential and security. The PERSEPHONE program will develop high-performance tools for bioenergy crop engineering, create novel genetic engineering modalities, and spur adoption by supporting innovative research on biocontainment. Specifically, PERSEPHONE aims to support the development of tools that could lead to an annual impact of the production of at least 1 quad of energy or mitigation of more than 60 MT of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The program will support projects in three areas: Technical Category A will develop robust, high-performing tools for the genetic engineering of bioenergy crops that overcome transformation genotype dependence, increase throughput 10x, and/or reduce cost and timeline by 4x and 2x, respectively. Technical Category B will support the creation of radically new technologies for plant genetic engineering that have a pathway to achieve metrics well beyond the targets established in Category A. Technical Category C will support adoption of genetically engineered bioenergy crops by developing technologies to reduce the risks of invasiveness to less than 0.1 percent and eliminate the flow of transgenes into the environment. The program encourages the formation of multidisciplinary teams with expertise in relevant areas such as synthetic biology, bioengineering, plant genomics and genetics, materials, robotics, and machine learning. If PERSEPHONE is successful, the new genetic engineering tools will enable the rapid development and commercialization of bioenergy applications in areas as diverse as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), nitrogen management, and energy-efficient materials. To view the NOFO in its entirety, please visit https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov.

Overview

Category of Funding
Opportunity Zone Benefits
Science and Technology and other Research and Development
Funding Instruments
Cooperative Agreement
Other
Grant Category
Discretionary
Cost Sharing / Matching Requirement
True
Source
On 1/17/25 Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy posted grant opportunity DE-FOA-0003551 for PLANT ENGINEERING TO REVOLUTIONIZE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION AND HEIGHTEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR NOVEL EFFICIENCY (PERSEPHONE) with funding of $15.0 million. The grant will be issued under grant program 81.135 Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy. It is expected that 7 total grants will be made worth between $250,000 and $4.0 million.

Timing

Posted Date
Jan. 17, 2025, 12:00 a.m. EST
Closing Date
March 4, 2025, 12:00 a.m. EST Due in 15 Days
Last Updated
Feb. 10, 2025, 2:30 p.m. EST
Version
2
Archive Date
June 6, 2025

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants
Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"
Additional Info
See Section II.A. of the NOFO.

Award Sizing

Ceiling
$4,000,000
Floor
$250,000
Estimated Program Funding
$15,000,000
Estimated Number of Grants
7

Contacts

Contact
Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy
Contact Email
Email Description
Click to email contact
Contact Phone
(202) 287-1878
Additional Information
ARPA-E eXCHANGE
Additional Information Site

Documents

Posted documents for DE-FOA-0003551

Potential Applicants and Partners

Awardees that have recently won grants similar to DE-FOA-0003551

Incumbent or Similar Grants

Grants similar to DE-FOA-0003551

Similar Active Opportunities

Open grant opportunities similar to DE-FOA-0003551