Bioenergy Research Centers | DE FOA 0001540

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0001540

The Bioenergy Research Centers funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0001540) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science discretionary research program that plans to support large, multi-institutional Bioenergy Research Centers through cooperative agreements. The focus is science and technology research and development tied to bioenergy, with DOE expecting to make about three awards. The stated award ceiling is $30,000,000 per award, indicating these are major center-scale efforts rather than single-investigator projects. The assistance listing is under CFDA 81.049, and the original closing date shown for the opportunity is 2016-09-30.

The solicitation is administered through a specific workflow that applicants have to follow closely. The full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and the detailed application instructions are hosted on FedConnect, and the FOA must be located there by searching public opportunities using an advanced search on the title "Bioenergy Research Centers." Even though the FOA is retrieved from FedConnect, full applications must be submitted through Grants.gov, and applications submitted through FedConnect are explicitly not accepted. In addition, a mandatory pre-application is required and must be submitted through DOE Office of Science PAMS (Portfolio Analysis and Management System) at pamspublic.science.energy.gov, following the FOA's instructions. In practical terms, this means there are two separate submission steps on two different platforms: the required pre-application in PAMS and the full application in Grants.gov, with FedConnect serving as the document repository for the official FOA.

Eligibility is structured around who can serve as the prime recipient (lead organization) versus who can only participate as a subawardee (team member). Individuals, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, cannot apply as a prime recipient, but they can participate on a team as subawardees and can serve in key roles (such as Program Director/Principal Investigator) through an eligible organization or as part of a subaward arrangement. The FOA also reiterates DOE's general encouragement for participation by individuals from underrepresented groups and individuals with disabilities.

For domestic entities, a broad set of U.S.-formed organizations can apply as the prime or as subawardees, including for-profit companies, universities and other educational institutions, nonprofits incorporated under U.S. state or territorial law, and DOE/NNSA National Laboratories. Several categories are restricted to subaward participation only: state, local, and tribal government entities may join as team members but cannot lead; non-DOE/NNSA federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), other non-DOE government-owned/contractor-operated (GOCO) contractors, and non-DOE government-owned/government-operated (GOGO) organizations can participate as subawardees but not as the prime; and federal agencies outside DOE can also participate only as subawardees, not as the lead applicant. Foreign entities are allowed to participate as subawardees (team members) but are not eligible to serve as the prime recipient.

The FOA is designed to accommodate both incorporated and unincorporated multi-organization center structures. Incorporated consortia can apply either as the prime recipient or as subawardees, but they must be legally formed under U.S. state or territorial law and maintain an internal governance structure with written internal rules that DOE may request to review. Unincorporated consortia (team arrangements) are also permitted, but they must designate a single member to serve as the prime recipient/consortium representative, and that lead organization must itself be incorporated or otherwise formed under U.S. state or territorial law. For unincorporated teams, DOE may require a formal collaboration agreement (often called articles of collaboration) that spells out how the consortium will be managed and how it will operate, including the management structure, how payments flow to members, how the lead will oversee members' work, how any required cost sharing will be handled, and how intellectual property rights will be addressed for both pre-existing IP and inventions developed under the project.

Cost sharing requirements apply most directly to for-profit participants. Any for-profit entity, whether serving as the prime recipient or participating as a subawardee, must provide at least a 20 percent cost share for basic and applied research and development activities. This cost share is calculated based on the portion of the overall Bioenergy Research Center budget attributed to that specific for-profit entity, and it must equal at least 20 percent of that entity's total allowable R&D costs. The text provided is truncated regarding the requirements for other non-federal entities, so the full FOA should be consulted to confirm whether additional cost share rules apply beyond the explicit for-profit minimum.

• The Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Bioenergy Research Centers" 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 2016-03-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-09-30. (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 $30,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for DE FOA 0001540

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