New Bioimaging Approaches for Bioenergy | DE FOA 0002041

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002041

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, through the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program and its Biological Systems Science Division (BSSD), is seeking grant applications for fundamental research that will create new bioimaging capabilities aimed at improving how scientists observe and understand plant and microbial systems relevant to bioenergy. The central theme is advancing imaging methods that can reveal what is happening inside living cells and within complex living communities (including rhizosphere environments and soil microbiomes) in ways that are non-destructive, real time, and detailed enough to test biological hypotheses rather than just describe static snapshots.

A major emphasis of this opportunity is the development and use of quantum dot (QD)-based imaging approaches. DOE is looking for new quantum dot-enabled probes, sensors, and related optical imaging instrumentation that can track multiple biological processes as they occur in living systems. The goal is to overcome existing limitations in bioimaging by enabling dynamic localization (seeing where something is happening) and time-resolved measurement (seeing how it changes), ideally across more than one target or process at once. In practical terms, DOE wants tools that help researchers directly observe complex cellular and intercellular behavior that drives bioenergy-relevant traits and functions.

The FOA highlights several process areas of interest, while making clear that the list is not exhaustive. Examples include measuring enzyme function inside cells, tracking metabolic pathways in vivo, monitoring transport of materials within cells or across cellular membranes, and observing signaling processes between cells. Importantly, the signaling and interaction component extends to both plant-microbe relationships and microbe-microbe interactions, reflecting the importance of microbial communities and plant-associated microbiomes in bioenergy research. Applications that can illuminate these interactions within realistic biological contexts (for example, in the rhizosphere rather than only in simplified lab cultures) align strongly with the intent of the call.

On the technology development side, DOE encourages proposals that create probes and sensors with strong optical performance and that are functionalized with biologically active molecules so they can bind to or interact with specific cellular targets. This points to an interest in specificity and mechanistic interpretability: imaging agents should not just light up generally, but should be engineered to report on defined molecules, structures, activities, or microenvironments inside living cells. The expectation is that these engineered quantum dot tools, together with complementary optical instrumentation, will substantially improve the ability to measure and characterize biological processes within and among living cells, in real time, without destroying the sample.

This is a discretionary grant funding opportunity in the Science and Technology / Research and Development category, issued by the DOE Office of Science. The funding opportunity title is "New Bioimaging Approaches for Bioenergy," and the opportunity number is DE-FOA-0002041, with CFDA number 81.049. The opportunity was created on January 11, 2019, and the original closing date listed is May 20, 2019. The award ceiling shown is $750,000, indicating the maximum expected funding per award under the terms described in the source information (the number of expected awards is not clearly provided in the excerpt).

Eligibility is broad for lead applicants, with specific exclusions. Most organization types can apply as the prime (lead) institution, but DOE/NNSA National Laboratories, other Federal Agencies, FFRDC contractors, and certain lobbying 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations (as described in the Internal Revenue Code and the FOA text) cannot serve as the lead. Even though those entities cannot lead, the FOA explicitly allows them to participate as collaborators on an application led by an eligible prime institution. DOE frames these collaborations as acceptable and potentially valuable when they fill critical gaps in expertise, but it caps their participation: collaborators from DOE/NNSA labs, other Federal agencies, and their FFRDCs together may account for no more than 25 percent of the total project budget, and that same 25 percent limit applies to the collaborative group. In other words, the project must be primarily performed and budgeted through the eligible lead institution and its allowable partners, with federal/FFRDC collaborators playing a limited, targeted role.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as a tool-building and capability-advancement FOA focused on next-generation optical bioimaging for bioenergy science. Competitive applications would likely center on new quantum dot-based probes and sensors (and the supporting optical systems needed to use them) that enable specific, multiplexed, real-time visualization or measurement of key cellular functions and interactions in living plant and microbial settings, especially in complex environments like soil-associated microbiomes where current imaging approaches often fall short.

• The Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "New Bioimaging Approaches for Bioenergy" 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 2019-01-11.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-05-20. (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 $750,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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