Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number: DE-FOA-0002254

Submission Deadline for Pre-Applications (required): March 24, 2020

FOA Summary:

The DOE SC program in Basic Energy Sciences (BES) hereby solicits new applications for multi-investigator cross-disciplinary fundamental research to address emerging new directions as well as long-standing challenges in liquid solar fuels generation via artificial photosynthesis approaches. Artificial photosynthesis is typically viewed as the generation of fuels using only sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water as inputs. However, for the purpose of this FOA the concept of artificial photosynthesis approaches will be expanded to include other abundant feedstocks beyond carbon dioxide, such as nitrogen. Regardless of feedstock, the focus must remain on fundamental scientific concepts for solar-driven liquid fuel production.

Applications should focus on the highest scientific priorities in solar fuels production as identified by the 2019 Liquid Solar Fuels Roundtable and will be required to address priority research opportunities (PROs) denoted by the 2019 Liquid Solar Fuels Roundtable at https://science.osti.gov/bes/Community-Resources/Reports. The research should capitalize on unique capabilities and accomplishments developed to date, including those from BES-funded efforts in the Fuels from Sunlight Hub, Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs), and BES core programs. Projects should also integrate experiment and theory to elucidate scientific principles for light energy capture and conversion into chemical bonds.

Applications submitted to this FOA may request support in the range from $10M to $20M per year for up to five (5) years.

The project must address at least two (2) of the PROs denoted by the 2019 Liquid Solar Fuels Roundtable (see here: https://science.osti.gov/bes/Community-Resources/Reports)

For more information, including the FOA, please see grants.gov.