NSF Org:	OISE Office of International Science and Engineering
Recipient:	J. CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE, INC.
Initial Amendment Date:	September 16, 2024
Latest Amendment Date:	October 7, 2024
Award Number:	2435184
Award Instrument:	Continuing Grant
Program Manager:	Lance Manuel lmanuel@nsf.gov  (703)292-4250 OISE  Office of International Science and Engineering O/D  Office Of The Director
Start Date:	October 1, 2024
End Date:	September 30, 2029 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$4,998,387.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$3,980,757.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2024 = $3,980,757.00
History of Investigator:	Tae Seok Moon (Principal Investigator) tsmoon7@gmail.com Sunkyu Park (Co-Principal Investigator) Christopher Dupont (Co-Principal Investigator) Jikai Zhao (Co-Principal Investigator) Anum Glasgow (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	J. Craig Venter Institute, Inc. 4120 CAPRICORN LN LA JOLLA CA  US  92037-3498 (858)200-1864
Sponsor Congressional District:	50
Primary Place of Performance:	J. Craig Venter Institute, Inc. 4120 CAPRICORN LN LA JOLLA CA  US  92037-3498
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	50
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	FL8UNYTG72D1
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	Global Centers: Track I (IMPL)
Primary Program Source:	01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	5942, 5946, 5921, 7561, 125Z
Program Element Code(s):	249Y00
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.079

ABSTRACT

This award is funded by NSF Global Centers program, an innovative partnership with funding agencies in Canada, Finland, Japan, Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom, to jointly support use-inspired research addressing global challenges through the bioeconomy. These partnerships leverage resources to tackle challenges at a larger scale than would be possible for one funding agency alone. This Center is jointly supported by NSF, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and UK Research and Innovation.

The Center for Innovative Recycling and Circular Economy (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 supports an international partnership across six countries to tackle these global issues. It engages more than 40 investigators from 18 academic institutions and 16 private companies. It leverages expertise in chemistry, computational and systems biology, microbiology, metabolic engineering, and bioprocess engineering. It develops integrated, novel, and scalable processes for waste-stream valorization. It trains the next generation of scientists and engineers in the field to ensure the sustainability of the approach and broaden its impact. It also engages the global community through multiple outreach activities, providing free global education. The overarching goal is to develop disruptive solutions to the current waste problems. Another aim is to provide sustainable solutions for the commercially viable production of energy, chemicals, and materials.

CIRCLE aims at developing three core technologies: (1) multi-omics-based bioprospecting to discover new enzymes, gene regulators, and organisms for waste valorization, (2) predictive computational approaches to enable forward engineering of proteins and strains for biomanufacturing, and (3) techno-economic analysis (TEA), life cycle analysis (LCA), and risk assessment to develop commercially viable bioprocesses for waste valorization. To demonstrate the utility and generalizability of these core technologies, the Center focuses on three waste streams: mixed plastics, C1 gases, and biogenic wastes (e.g., food, agricultural, and paper/cardboard wastes). These core projects provide novel waste-conversion processes that can be translated to commercial-scale, sustainable bioproduction. The center also provides diverse groups of trainees in participating nations with unique interdisciplinary training opportunities, involving synthetic biology, systems biology, multi-omics, bioinformatics, computational biology, chemistry, systems engineering, risk assessment, TEA/LCA, and chemical engineering.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.