Research to Enable Fuels From Sunlight | DE FOA 0002254

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002254

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science is offering a discretionary funding opportunity titled "Research to Enable Fuels From Sunlight" (Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0002254) to support early-stage, fundamental research aimed at advancing liquid solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis. The focus is on multi-investigator, cross-disciplinary projects that tackle both long-standing scientific barriers and newly emerging research directions in the field. Awards will be made as cooperative agreements, which typically means DOE expects an active partnership role during the project rather than a hands-off grant structure.

At its core, the opportunity targets the science needed to convert sunlight into chemical energy stored in liquid fuels. Artificial photosynthesis is often defined narrowly as using sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make fuels, but this FOA intentionally broadens the concept to include other abundant feedstocks beyond carbon dioxide, with nitrogen given as an example. Even with that broader definition, the central requirement stays the same: the work must be fundamentally about solar-driven conversion processes that form chemical bonds leading to liquid fuel products. The program is not framed as a late-stage scale-up or demonstration effort; it is meant to uncover and clarify the underlying scientific principles that would enable future technologies.

A major organizing feature of this FOA is alignment with the highest-priority scientific needs identified by the 2019 Liquid Solar Fuels Roundtable. Applicants are expected to build their proposed research around the Priority Research Opportunities (PROs) laid out in the 2019 Liquid Solar Fuels Roundtable Report. In practical terms, proposals need to show a clear line of sight from the proposed fundamental studies to one or more of those community-defined priorities, rather than pursuing disconnected or purely incremental work.

DOE also emphasizes leveraging and extending capabilities created through prior Basic Energy Sciences (BES) investments, including efforts associated with the Fuels from Sunlight Hub, Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs), and BES core programs. The idea is to build on proven strengths, instrumentation, teams, and conceptual advances already developed in the DOE ecosystem, while pushing into the next set of foundational challenges. Another explicit expectation is strong integration of experiment and theory, with the goal of elucidating the scientific rules governing light capture, charge and energy transfer, catalysis, and the conversion of that captured energy into stable chemical bonds in fuel molecules.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a DOE Office of Science (Office of Science, Office of Science) opportunity in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category (CFDA 81.049). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning a wide range of entity types may apply, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full FOA text. The FOA was created on February 19, 2020, with an original closing date of May 27, 2020. The maximum award size is up to $20,000,000, and DOE anticipated making about two awards, suggesting a small number of relatively large, team-based projects rather than many smaller individual investigator grants.

• The Department of Energy - Office of Science, Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Research to Enable Fuels From Sunlight" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.049.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 19, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 27, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $20,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for DE FOA 0002254

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