The federal agencies are tasked with addressing issues of national concern, but the development of bio-based energy and bioproducts requires an in-depth knowledge of each region's biogeographic conditions and local resources. Partnering with the Sun Grant Initiative provides the federal agencies with access to the regional and local expertise of the land-grant university research and outreach networks. Through this university-federal agency partnership, national priorities for bioenergy and bioproduct research and development are addressed at the regional and site-specific levels where challenges can really be resolved.
The Sun Grant Initiative works with each federal agency to help address their respective missions and priorities in the development of bioenergy and bioproducts. In its collaboration with federal partners, the Sun Grant Initiative addresses the complete bioenergy production chain, building from its unique ability to address biomass feedstock development at the regional level, to developing new technologies to support the logistics of preparing and moving feedstocks, to supporting the development of new conversion technologies.
The Sun Grant Initiative coordinates and conducts a wide variety of research related to biomass and bioenergy. Working both on a national and regional level, the Sun Grant Centers are charged with coordinating regional competitive grant programs, a national feedstock development effort and other important research endeavors.