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Fact
Sheet
March 28, 2006
DOE
OFFICE OF SCIENCE TO REVISE PLANS FOR GENOMICS:GTL
FACILITIES
Plans
to Issue New Solicitation for GTL Bioenergy
Research Centers
The Department of Energy’s Office of Science
announced today that it is revising its plans
for the deployment of new research facilities
to support its Genomics:GTL program. The decision
to reshape plans for the new GTL research facilities
comes in response to the President’s recently
announced Advanced Energy Initiative and a review
of the GTL program by the National Research
Council (NRC) of the National Academies.
Begun in 2000, the Office of Science’s
GTL program supports advanced research in systems
biology aimed at harnessing the powers of the
microbial world to produce abundant and clean
energy, absorb carbon dioxide, and transform
radioactively contaminated waste.
The specific goal of the new facilities
plan will be to accelerate GTL systems biology
research in the area of bioenergy, with the
objective of developing cost-effective, biologically
based renewable energy sources to reduce U.S.
dependence on fossil fuels.
The Office also said the new facilities
plan, to be based partly on recommendations
from the NRC panel, should be able to accomplish
the GTL program’s objectives more rapidly
and at reduced cost.
As part of the reassessment, the
Office of Science has cancelled its Funding
Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for a planned
GTL Facility for the Production and Characterization
of Proteins and Molecular Tags, issued in early
January. The Office of Science plans to issue
a new solicitation in the coming months for
one or more centers for bioenergy research.
Centers focused on systems biology research
into carbon sequestration and bioremediation
are also being considered for future years.
The NRC committee report provided
a strong endorsement of the Office of Science
GTL program, recommending that the program’s
focus on systems biology for bioenergy, carbon
sequestration, and bioremediation be given a
“high priority” by DOE and the nation.
But the report also recommended that the program’s
plan for new research facilities be reshaped
to produce results earlier and more cost-effectively.
The Office of Science had planned
a suite of four user facilities, each with a
different technological bent – protein
production, molecular imaging, proteome analysis
and systems biology. Since the original GTL
facilities plan was formulated, GTL’s
energy mission has increased in priority. In
particular, the President’s Advanced Energy
Initiative has mandated a strong focus on bioenergy,
with an emphasis on producing research results
that will help reduce the Nation’s dependence
on fossil fuels.
The NRC committee recommended
that the GTL facilities should be focused not
on particular technologies, but on research
underpinning particular applications –
bioenergy, carbon sequestration or environmental
remediation. Drawing on the NRC recommendations,
the Office of Science is formulating a plan
for one or two vertically integrated centers
with a focus on bioenergy research. The Office
believes that these centers can be operational
at a date earlier than the originally planned
Facility for the Production and Characterization
of Proteins and Molecular Tags. The Office of
Science plans to issue the new solicitation
soon.
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NOTE: For more information about
the Genomics:GTL program, please visit its web
site at http://doegenomestolife.org/.
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