By Diana Lutz, news.wustl.edu
When Robert Blankenship, PhD, stood up during the annual all-hands meeting of the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) at Washington University in St. Louis, he immediately had the attention of everyone in the room.
A decision about renewal funding was overdue, rumors had been flying and Blankenship, PARC’s director, wasn’t on the June 18 meeting agenda for that time slot.
He said quite simply that he had just received an email from the Department of Energy (DOE) saying that the agency was pleased to inform him that PARC’s proposal for a second round of funding as an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) had been successful.
After the roar of applause had died down, he added that the award was for $3.6 million for a period of four years, for a total of $14.4 million.
Everyone in the room knew that PARC was well regarded in the scientific community, but they also knew in most federal agencies the funding rates were around 10 or 15 percent. The competition for this round of funding was very stiff.
In 2009, the DOE had funded the creation of 46 EFRCs to lay the scientific groundwork necessary to meet the global need for abundant, clean and economical energy.
Only about half of the 46 centers were funded in the second round, although 10 new ones were added for a total of 32 awards. Those 32 projects were selected from more than 200 proposals.
“I want to personally thank everybody in this room because all of you contributed to making this a success. We couldn’t have gotten the renewal without a tremendous amount of hard work and fantastic science from all of you,” said Blankenship, who is a professor of chemistry and of biology.
Read more in the WUSTL Newsroom.