Affordable and Sustainable Energy Crops (ASEC) Funding Opportunity Announcement | DE FOA 0001917

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0001917

The Affordable and Sustainable Energy Crops (ASEC) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), offers federal financial assistance to speed up research and development focused on growing and supplying affordable, sustainable, non-food energy crops. The core idea is to strengthen the pipeline of biomass feedstocks that can be converted into price-competitive biofuels and bioproducts, helping make renewable alternatives more economically viable at scale. By emphasizing non-food crops, the FOA is aimed at expanding feedstock options without directly competing with food markets, while still supporting the broader national push toward cleaner energy and domestic manufacturing of renewable fuels and products.

This opportunity aligns with EERE performance goals that include reducing U.S. reliance on foreign oil, improving the affordability and practicality of renewable energy technologies and processes, and accelerating growth in the domestic bioeconomy. In practical terms, the DOE is looking for projects that can move the needle on real-world deployment barriers related to energy-crop production, such as cost, sustainability, yield stability, and scalable supply. The FOA supports applied R&D that helps ensure these crops can be produced reliably and sustainably, and that the resulting biomass can serve as dependable feedstock for downstream conversion industries.

Funding is offered as a discretionary award under a Cooperative Agreement, which typically means DOE expects to have substantial involvement during the project period (for example, through technical direction, milestone reviews, and ongoing coordination) rather than acting only as a check-writer. The administering office listed is the DOE Golden Field Office. The program is associated with CFDA number 81.087 and falls under the Energy funding activity category. The FOA anticipated making about six awards, with an award ceiling of $5,000,000 per project, indicating a preference for sizable, multi-year efforts capable of demonstrating meaningful progress rather than small exploratory studies.

Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning the competition is open to a wide range of applicant types (such as universities, national laboratories, companies, nonprofits, and other organizations), subject to any additional clarifications in the full FOA. Because the eligibility field notes that restrictions may appear in the FOA text, applicants would need to confirm any special requirements, limitations, or teaming expectations by reviewing the full announcement on EERE Exchange.

The submission process is handled entirely through EERE Exchange, DOE EERE's online application portal, and applicants are required to complete key federal registrations before applying. Specifically, applicants must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) and must include a valid DUNS number in the application. The FOA emphasizes that failure to meet these registration and identification requirements can lead DOE to deem an applicant unqualified for a federal award, and that finding could be used to justify making an award to another applicant, so these administrative steps are not optional and should be addressed early.

Key dates for this funding round were set in 2018. The FOA was created on May 3, 2018, with a required Letter of Intent due May 30, 2018 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time, followed by full applications due June 27, 2018 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time. Questions about the content of the announcement and questions about application submission were directed to the contact pathways described in the full FOA on EERE Exchange, reinforcing that applicants should rely on the official posting for authoritative guidance, templates, formatting rules, topic areas, and evaluation criteria.

Overall, this FOA is designed to fund high-impact R&D that improves the economics and sustainability of non-food energy crops, strengthening the U.S. feedstock base for biofuels and bioproducts while supporting national goals around energy security, renewable technology affordability, and bioeconomy growth. For anyone preparing an application, the practical next steps would be to review FOA DE-FOA-0001917 on EERE Exchange, confirm eligibility and topic fit, complete SAM registration and DUNS requirements, submit a timely letter of intent, and then assemble and submit the full application package through the portal by the posted deadline.

• The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Affordable and Sustainable Energy Crops (ASEC) Funding Opportunity Announcement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 03, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 27, 2018 Submission Deadline for Letter of Intent 05/30/2018 500pm ET Submission Deadline for Full Applications 06/27/2018 500pm ET. (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 $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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