NSF and international partners to invest $82M in Six 2024 Global Centers

The U.S. National Science Foundation and partner agencies in the U.S., Canada, Finland, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and the United Kingdom today announced funding awards totaling nearly $82 million in their Global Centers competition.

2024 Global Centers awards focus on advancing bioeconomy research to solve global challenges, whether by increasing crop resilience, converting plant matter or other biomass into fuel, or paving the way for biofoundries to scale-up applications of biotechnology for societal benefit. The program supports holistic, multidisciplinary projects that bring together international teams and scientific disciplines, including education and social sciences, necessary to achieve use-inspired outcomes. All Global Centers will integrate public engagement and workforce development, paying close attention to impacts on communities.

"The Global Centers are leveraging expertise and resources across like-minded nations and uniting multidisciplinary teams from around the world to accelerate innovations in the bioeconomy for great impact," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "Together, we are forging new solutions to pressing socioeconomic challenges while creating international centers of research excellence that are generating crucial knowledge, empowering communities and strengthening the foundations of global cooperation."

Partner agencies include the National Endowment for the Humanities in the U.S.; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada; the Research Council of Finland (RCF) and Innovation Funding Agency Business Finland; the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST); the ROK Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea; and the UK Research and Innovation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

"Alongside replacing fossil fuels, there is an urgent need to replace petrochemical industrial feedstocks across a wide range of sectors. This is a global challenge that requires global solutions and UKRI is delighted to be partnering in the NSF Global Centers 2024 programme to meet this need," said UKRI CEO Dame Ottoline Leyser. "The announcement today will be at the forefront of real-world solutions, from improved recycling to new bioplastics, building a sustainable circular economy. The centers will create the global networks and skills needed to drive a thriving bioeconomy benefitting all."

"The joint Bioeconomy funding call is a response to global challenges resolvable only with international scientific cooperation. The Research Council of Finland is proud to be part of this highly impactful multilateral research funding cooperation for the best of our planet and its citizens," said RCF President Paula Eerola.

"Business Finland has a high expectations for NSF Global Centers Bioeconomy Program's use-inspired approach, where the best Finnish bioeconomy companies and researchers get to work closely with best international competence leading to global bioeconomy breakthrough solutions", says Lassi Noponen, Director General of Business Finland.

Yoo Sang-Im, Korea's Minister of Science and ICT touted South Korea's participation in the NSF Global Centers program for the first time, "The Korean government is expanding its support for global research to foster continued collaboration and connections. We look forward to seeing the joint efforts of Biofoundry and Bioeconomy produce remarkable results over the next five years."

Calling the Global Centers program "a groundbreaking initiative," JST President HASHIMOTO Kazuhito noted how Japan would help to "strengthen global bioeconomy research capabilities and develop talent through endeavors such as the establishment of biofoundries… We eagerly look forward to the future breakthroughs these efforts will bring."

"Today's global challenges demand unprecedented collaboration and innovation. The NSF Global Centers initiative is transforming how we address these challenges by supporting international, interdisciplinary research centers that harness the power of the bioeconomy," said Canada's NSERC President Alejandro Adem, "We are very excited to connect Canada's talented research community with partners around the world to develop major advancements in food security, plastics and waste management, and the circular economy."

Canada's SSHRC President Ted Hewitt agrees, "NSF Global Centers stand as beacons of collaboration and excellence, empowering researchers to address complex challenges with transformative results, highlighting the inspiring efforts of the researchers. With our partners, we can better work together and find solutions to societal issues that will help create a more sustainable future for society."

The Global Centers program leverages NSF's areas of strength and advances the bioeconomy executive order and the Bold Goals For U.S. Biotechnology And Biomanufacturing. The Global Centers will also capitalize on other NSF investments in biofoundries that enable researchers to rapidly design, create, test, and streamline the development of tools and products to accelerate research to advance the bioeconomy. 

To learn more about this international partnership, visit the NSF Global Centers webpage. 

The six new centers are:

CIRCLE Center for Innovative Recycling and Circular Economy
Headquartered at the J. Craig Venter Institute, CIRCLE addresses the challenges associated with recalcitrant waste streams and management. Air pollution reduction, agricultural/food waste treatment, and plastic waste disposal are global challenges that affect human health across borders. These issues cannot be addressed by a single discipline or a single country. CIRCLE includes partners from the U.S., Canada, ROK, and the U.K.

International Research Center for Enhancing Plant Resilience
The International Research Center for Enhancing Plant Resilience at Michigan State University brings together experts from the U.S., Canada, Japan, ROK, and the U.K. to address urgent agricultural problems and explore sustainable solutions for agriculture. It addresses the critical challenge of stabilizing global food production amid unpredictable weather patterns and increasing environmental stressors. By discovering and harnessing natural products from plans and microbes, it aims to enhance plant and soil health and create natural solutions to stabilize crop productivity.

Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts (GCSB)
One pressing challenge is the development of environmentally and economically sustainable bio-derived composites and plastics. GCSB at the University of Tennessee Knoxville tackles this challenge. It leverages expertise from the U.S., Canada, ROK, and the U.K., as well as collaborators from the global industrial sectors. This diverse, international team fosters innovative approaches aimed at converting and utilizing waste biomass for bioplastics. 

Alliance for Socially-acceptable & Actionable Plants (ASAP)
Improving feedstock-crop performance and resilience is a key sustainable bioeconomy goal. Plant lipids store substantial energy that can be easily converted into fuels and other products. However, feedstock crops need to have greater energy density, increased resilience to environmental stresses, and higher yields. ASAP at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with partners in Finland, Japan, and the U.K., exploits the biodiversity in gene sequences to engineer crops with increased lipid content and greater water use efficiency.

Reliable and Scalable Biofoundries for Biomanufacturing and Global Bioeconomy
Biofoundries stand to be as transformative to biotechnology as computers are to information technology. However, their wide adoption for biomanufacturing and global bioeconomy is hindered by the lack of standards and metrics in data, workflows, ontologies, and regulatory considerations. This project, based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, leverages the expertise from seven biofoundries in the U.S., Finland, Japan, ROK, and the U.K. to address this challenge, opening the way to the full-scale adoption of biofoundry applications throughout society.

International Bioeconomy Macroalgae Center (IBMC)
IBMC at the University of California-Berkeley aims to advance the use of macroalgae (seaweed) in the global supply chain. Macroalgae—which grows faster than traditional crops, requires less water, and provides essential nutrients—offer a promising resource for producing fuels, food, and other valuable products. Leveraging expertise from the U.S., Canada, ROK, and the U.K., IBMC contributes to a sustainable future by offering new opportunities for economic growth while addressing critical environmental challenges.