U.S.-Israel Bio-Energy Challenge

The Challenge is a competitive program that will pick up to 12 leading Israeli biofuels companies and academic researchers to serve as the advance guard for forming a collaborative effort on bioenergy between US and Israel. Within this initiative, research and/or development in the core interests of the DOE are eligible for consideration:
• Selection, bio-engineering and modification of fuel feed-stocks;
• Production of novel fuel feed-stocks on non-arable land and without using fresh water;
• Overcoming “recalcitrance” caused by the presence of lignin and hemicellulose;
• Synthetic photosynthesis resulting in practical solutions for the production of liquid fuels. And
• Improving pathways and methods for producing fuels from precursors or via the direct microbial production.
 Projects from Academia will be judged as to their scientific merit; innovativeness and the potential to be reduced to practice by industry.
Those selected by Israeli and US panels will participate in the Core Program in Washington DC between October 14-22, with the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Agriculture, US Navy and US Air Force, among others and at the DOE’s 3 regional BioEnergy Research Centers with leading center researchers; potential research collaborators, grant-making authorities, program administrators, and potential industrial strategic partners and biofuels end users.
The Core Program will lay the groundwork for the second phase of this initiative, facilitating joint industrial and/or academic R&D projects to Bio-energy between Israeli & US entities, utilizing existing bilateral cooperation programs offered by both countries through their respective agencies.
 Applicants should submit 1 page non-NDA Executive Summary along with up to a 5 page abstract, describing the project.
www.matimop.org.il/call_bioenergy.html 
www.matimop.org.il/Uploads%5CAttachments%5C17219%5CBioEnergy_RFP_FINAL.pdf