NSF awards $30 million to for Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation
In Virginia, the National Science Foundation has announced 15 Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation grants for fiscal year 2012, awarding nearly $30 million to 68 investigators at 26 institutions. Over the next four years, teams of researchers will work in three emerging areas. One set of research teams will investigate the large-scale use of micro-organisms that harness solar energy to produce chemicals and fuels from CO2. The researchers will investigate the optimization of micro-organisms themselves and their growing conditions to produce easily processed hydrocarbon chemicals in large quantities. The researchers also will explore ways to obtain a variety of value-added compounds, whether by using an array of micro-organisms or by combining biological processes with chemical catalysis. Each project will pursue efficiency and sustainability in a number of ways.
Category: Research