Washington University has taken center stage in a regional bid to build a revolutionary bioenergy research center.
The Department of Energy announced last August that it would be sponsoring construction of two such research centers. Since that time, the University has spearheaded a committee that has been working at a feverish pace to submit a sterling proposal.
“Washington University and our multiple partners within the St. Louis region, the State of Missouri, and the nation, bring important strengths in a number of areas, particularly leadership in plant sciences, genomics, and systems biology, elements that will be key to creating a successful bioenergy program,” said Samuel Stanley, vice chancellor of research. “However, only two DOE Bioenergy Research Centers will be established in the United States, so this will be a very competitive process, and we are not guaranteed that our application, no matter how strong, will be successful.”
Stanley is one of many people at Washington University collaborating on the proposal. The ramifications of building such a center in the St. Louis area would be far reaching for the University, noted Stanley.
“Bioenergy has emerged as an important component of our country’s efforts to develop new sources of energy for the future. Washington University, and our academic and industry partners, can and will contribute significantly to this effort, and we see the DOE Bioenergy Research Center as part of a broader initiative to help us lead in the development of biofuels as a viable source of energy,” said Stanley.
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has taken a leadership role in organizing faculty around the submission of a successful proposal.
“We have many important and relevant strengths in our region that suggest we will have a strong proposal, but there will be other strong proposals from elsewhere,” said Wrighton. “With enhanced federal support, there will be many opportunities to enhance our research activities in energy-related research, independent of the DOE competition for the bioenergy centers. We have many exciting and compelling education and research programs engaging our talented students and faculty on problems of importance in addressing energy and environmental concerns.”
Interest in the center takes on far more than just a local slant, however. The major biological research institutes of the entire region are interested – most notably the University of Missouri in Columbia, St. Louis University, the University of Southern Illinois and private corporations such as Monsanto.
Biology professor Himadri Pakrasi, recently appointed the director of the bioenergy initiative, explains the regional interest.
“I think that this is a new area that’s going to get established.It is expected that centers like these two will direct research efforts in a very centralized fashion all over the country,” said Pakrasi. “As a matter of fact, if we are to host these events, it’s not going to just be a Washington University center or a center for the region, it’s going to be a national center – a center for the globe.
Competition for the center, however, will be stiff.
“There are some outstanding institutions that will develop consortia to compete for these two sites, and we can expect there will be other high quality submissions,” said Stanley.
Pakrasi also noted that while they expect certain competition, the eventual number of bids is ultimately unknown to the University.
“We expect that there should be groups from northern California, there should be groups from the Boston area and there should be other groups from the Midwest. But this is just like any other federal grant opportunity, so, in essence, it can be just about anybody and everybody,” said Pakrasi.
In the end, many organizations have a high level of commitment to the construction of the research center – and hope to be a part of the advances it produces in the coming years.
“We have already a consortium formed, and there are more that are planning to join us,” said Pakrasi. “We are going to form an alliance at the national level.”