Plant Engineering To Revolutionize Sustainable Energy Production And Heighten Opportunities For Novel Efficiency Sbir/STTR (Persephone Sbir/STTR)
This grant provides funding to small businesses developing innovative tools for bioenergy crop engineering to enhance sustainable energy production and reduce carbon emissions.
The PERSEPHONE program, funded by ARPA-E, aims to develop groundbreaking technologies for bioenergy crop genetic engineering. Bioenergy currently accounts for about 5% of domestic energy consumption, with the potential to contribute 5-10% more. However, achieving this requires transformative advances in genetic engineering tools. This program will support the development of high-performance tools for bioenergy crop engineering, novel genetic engineering modalities, and biocontainment solutions. The initiative targets technologies that could yield at least 1 quad of energy production or mitigate over 60 MT of carbon dioxide equivalents annually. PERSEPHONE will fund projects in three categories: (A) developing robust genetic engineering tools that improve efficiency and reduce costs, (B) supporting revolutionary genetic engineering technologies, and (C) advancing biocontainment technologies to minimize environmental risks. The program encourages multidisciplinary collaboration across synthetic biology, bioengineering, plant genomics, robotics, and machine learning. If successful, these innovations could accelerate bioenergy crop development for applications such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), nitrogen management, and energy-efficient materials.
Award Range
$314,363 - $4,505,859
Total Program Funding
$15,000,000
Number of Awards
7
Matching Requirement
No
Eligible Applicants
Additional Requirements
Only a Small Business Concern may apply as the lead organization for a Project Team under STTR. The Small Business Concern must perform at least 40% of the work in Phase I, Phase II, and/or Phase IIS, as measured by the Total Project Cost. A single Research Institution must perform at least 30% of the work in Phase I, Phase II, and/or Phase IIS, as measured by the Total Project Cost. Please refer to Section II.B.1 of the NOFO for guidance on Research Institutions’ participation in STTR projects.
Geographic Eligibility
All
Application Opens
January 17, 2025
Application Closes
March 4, 2025
Grantor
US Department of Energy (Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy )
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