RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT GRANTS
Ceres has been awarded a number of grants to improve bioenergy and food crops.
High-Yield, Low Input Traits in Energy Grasses
In 2009, Ceres received a highly competitive ARPA-E grant award to develop low input, high yielding traits for energy crops. The three-year, $5 million project will test advanced traits in sorghum, switchgrass and miscanthus. Productivity and inputs requirements, such as fertilizer, will be evaluated as well as expected improvements to carbon and nitrogen cycles. More >>
Food Security in Asia
Ceres has been awarded a USAID grant to develop high-yielding traits in rice for Asia. Having access to high tech, low input varieties and traits should put small-holder farmers in Asia on track to achieve substantially higher yields and greater grain quality, while minimizing inputs and production costs.
Cell Wall Biology
In 2008, we began a research project to identify and characterize the plant genes involved in the construction and modification of plant cell walls, where the carbohydrates used to produce cellulosic biofuels are stored. The goal is to develop switchgrass varieties that can produce more ethanol per ton and can be processed more easily into biofuels by altering the composition and/or architecture of the cell walls. This project is funded by a $0.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture under a joint USDA and U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Research and Development Initiative grant program.