Bright news for energy research

The Sun Grant Initiative has announced that it will make a fund of $2.5m available over the next three years to researchers developing new energy sources from agricultural products.

The programme will fund seed-grant projects that allow investigators to explore possible renewable energy sources and processes, and integrated projects that require multi-institutional participation. The seed-grant projects will receive $35,000 per year for up to two years, while the integrated projects will receive $125,000 per year for up to three years.

‘These much-needed research projects are made possible through funding from the US Department of Transportation,’ said Clarence Watson, director of the Sun Grant Initiative’s South-Central Region, based at Oklahoma State University (OSU).

According to Ray Huhnke, agricultural engineer and associate director for the Sun Grant’s South-Central Region, the grants will be awarded to seventeen projects on a competition basis.

‘We use a competitive grants process. Seventy-six projects from across the region were proposed, and these were reviewed for technical merit and regional impact by experts representing a wide variety of career disciplines.