Quantum-Enabled Bioimaging and Sensing Approaches for Bioenergy | DE FOA 0002603

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002603

The Department of Energy Office of Science, through the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, issued this discretionary grant opportunity (DE-FOA-0002603) to push bioimaging and biosensing beyond the practical limits of traditional, "classical" optical methods. The central idea is to bring tools and concepts from quantum science into biological imaging so researchers can see biological structures and processes with better resolution and sensitivity, capture faster dynamics, improve signal-to-noise, and reduce common problems like photodamage, limited penetration depth in thick tissues, and unstable long-term signals. BER is looking for projects that range from fundamental research that proves new concepts to use-inspired work that builds early prototypes, as long as the end result clearly advances quantum-enabled approaches for bioimaging and sensing.

A major motivation behind the FOA is that many of the most important reactions for bioenergy-relevant biology happen in spatially constrained, hard-to-reach places inside cells and tissues. Enzymes, transporters, and other macromolecules that drive metabolism and regulation are often localized in specific subcellular regions or bound to membranes, sometimes deep within intact plants or complex microbial systems. Standard bioimaging can provide helpful structural and dynamic measurements, but it often struggles when investigators need to localize and track molecules in crowded, light-scattering, living samples over meaningful time periods. BER frames this as a key barrier to understanding how metabolic pathways are organized within the physical and topological constraints of cells, and how that organization controls the sequence and timing of biochemical steps. Projects supported under this opportunity are expected to make it easier to observe, in space and time, the substrates, metabolites, enzymes, and regulatory components that collectively determine pathway behavior, including natural and synthetically engineered pathways relevant to bioenergy.

In terms of technical direction, the FOA encourages quantum phenomena that can improve how photons or electrons are produced, manipulated, or detected for imaging and sensing. Examples of promising quantum-enabled approaches mentioned include photon entanglement, quantum correlation, tunneling, and other quantum effects that could realistically translate into better biological measurements. The goal is not quantum science in isolation, but quantum capabilities deliberately aimed at overcoming concrete bioimaging bottlenecks such as detection limits, temporal limitations, and the ability to selectively sense particular biomolecules. Proposed applications must support in situ imaging, meaning measurements performed directly within intact samples, of live or preserved plant and microbial systems that are relevant to BER-supported bioenergy research. In other words, the technology development needs to connect clearly to plant-microbe biosystems and the kinds of cellular and subcellular questions that matter for bioenergy.

Eligibility is broad for domestic applicants, with an explicit exclusion for 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations that have engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995. Federally affiliated entities have additional constraints. DOE/NNSA National Laboratories, non-DOE/NNSA Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), and other federal agencies cannot apply as the prime recipient, but they can participate as subrecipients under an eligible prime applicant. If selected, the funding that corresponds to a national laboratory subaward is handled through DOE mechanisms (for example, the DOE Field-Work Proposal system) and work is performed under the lab's existing DOE contract, rather than being governed by the FOA's administrative provisions in the same way as the prime award.

From the published source data, the opportunity is categorized as Science and Technology and other Research and Development (CFDA 81.049) and uses a grant instrument. The award ceiling listed is $750,000. The FOA was created on November 12, 2021, and the original application closing date was April 22, 2022. Overall, the FOA is aimed at accelerating a new generation of bioimaging and biosensing methods where quantum-enabled measurement strategies make it possible to see and quantify biological organization and dynamics that are currently difficult or impossible to capture with conventional techniques, specifically in the context of bioenergy-relevant plant and microbial systems.

• The Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Quantum-Enabled Bioimaging and Sensing 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 2021-11-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-04-22. (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.

Apply for DE FOA 0002603

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