Surpassing Evolution: Transformative Approaches to Enhance the Efficiency of Photosynthesis

The summary for the Surpassing Evolution: Transformative Approaches to Enhance the Efficiency of Photosynthesis Federal Grant is detailed below. It contains information such as the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number, who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, important deadlines, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed in the Grant Announcement Contact section. If these sections are incomplete, please visit the website of the government agency that is offering this grant.


	Federal Grant Title:	Surpassing Evolution: Transformative Approaches to Enhance the Efficiency of Photosynthesis
	CFDA Number:	47.074
	CFDA Description:	Biological Sciences
	Federal Agency Name:	National Science Foundation
	Category of Funding Activity:	Science and Technology
	Category Explanation:	Information not provided
	Opportunity Category:	Discretionary
	Funding Opportunity Number:	10-559
	Document Type:	Grants Notice
	Funding Instrument Type:	Grant
	Posted Date:	Apr 26, 2010
	Creation Date:	Apr 26, 2010
	Original Closing Date for Applications:	Nov 01, 2010 06/15/2010 Prelim Proposals required for consideration of participation in the Ideas Lab workshop (Sept 13-17, 2010). See full document for details. 11/01/2010 Full proposals. Participation in Ideas Lab not required to submit a full proposal.
	Current Closing Date for Applications:	Nov 01, 2010 06/15/2010 Prelim Proposals required for consideration of participation in the Ideas Lab workshop (Sept 13-17, 2010). See full document for details. 11/01/2010 Full proposals. Participation in Ideas Lab not required to submit a full proposal.
	Archive Date:	Information not provided
	Expected Number of Awards:	10
	Estimated Total Program Funding:	$6,000,000
	Federal Grant Award Ceiling:	$2,000,000
	Federal Grant Award Floor:	$300,000
	Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Applicants Eligible for this Grant: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"
Additional Information on Eligibility: Information not provided
Grant Description: Photosynthesis is the basis of energy capture from the sun in plants and algae and has the potential to be harnessed for major increases in biomass yield - whether that is for bioenergy, production of renewable chemicals or boosting crop yields for food. Increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis is likely to provide solutions for the food, energy, and environmental challenges of the future. While numerous efforts to increase photosynthetic efficiency have been made, few gains have been realized. Nevertheless, an increasingly detailed picture of photosynthetic mechanisms has been obtained. The emergence of new integrative bioscience including areas such as functional genomics, metabolic flux analysis, and synthetic biology bring novel strategies that can position scientists to surpass those limits. This solicitation encourages proposals that have the potential to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of photosynthesis beyond current limits. The key objective of this joint activity between the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in the UK is to stimulate innovative and transformative research proposals for the enhancement of photosynthetic efficiency. The proposals funded through this activity will include ideas that could lead to a sea-change in our knowledge, rather than incremental advances. The proposals will be generated in an Ideas Lab by multidisciplinary teams, which in addition to scientists from a traditional biology background may include researchers with expertise in physics, engineering, mathematical modeling, computer science, chemistry or any other discipline which may help to shed light on the topic. Members of the photosynthesis research community and specialists in other areas including but not limited to bioenergetics, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, modeling, and systems biology are strongly encouraged to participate.The aspiration is that mixing researchers from diverse backgrounds will engender fresh thinking and approaches that can be brought to bear on the long-standing problem of increasing efficiency of photosynthesis. In addition, by bringing together the best researchers from the US and the UK, the intention is to form strong transatlantic alliances, where the resulting synergies from the expertise of each partner, allows for significant added value. US and UK researchers can submit preliminary proposals via FastLane for participating in the Ideas Lab in which a set of multidisciplinary ideas will be developed. These will be submitted as full proposals. Alternatively, US researchers who cannot or do not desire to participate in the Ideas Lab can submit full proposals directly in response to this solicitation. Collaboration among researchers from USA and UK is strongly encouraged in the full proposals. International research collaborations between the researchers from USA and from UK are strongly encouraged in the full proposals.
Link to Full Grant Announcement: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf10559
Grant Announcement Contact: NSF grants.gov supportgrantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
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