Spring Break
Clean Energy Supercluster seed grants further green initiatives
Natasha Pepperl
Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: News
CSU's Clean Energy Supercluster, which was created to accelerate campus-wide research in clean energy and carbon dioxide capture, was recently awarded almost $200,000 in seed grants to fund university research.Â
The seed grants serve to help finance research projects so they will be able to obtain further, more extensive funding in the future. This is the second round of seed grants the Supercluster has distributed.
"(The seed grants) jumpstart new and promising activities so that faculty members will be able to be particularly competitive in turning…seed grants into larger funding opportunities from agencies or companies," said Professor Bryan Willson, the chief scientific officer for the Clean Energy Supercluster.Â
"It's always easier to get funding once you've gotten preliminary results from an idea," Willson said. He said the seed grants do not provide enough money to finance the researchers' projects, but provides them with resources to secure more funding in the future.
Though over 40 projects applied for the grants, the Supercluster was only able to fund 10 of them. The grant amounts were determined by budget proposals the researchers submitted and ranged from $15,000 to $29,000Â
Willson said the seed grants will both increase and diversify CSU's clean energy and carbon dioxide capture research and said the financed projects represent a broad spectrum of research.
Some of the projects concentrate on the mechanical side of clean energy technology while others are focused on its social science component, he said.Â
"I'm excited about different aspects of all of them," Willson said.Â
The funds for the seed grants came from the profits of successful Clean Energy Supercluster ventures and money allocated to the Supercluster's budget by the vice president of research Jim Sites, the steering committee chair of the Supercluster, said.
An $18,000 seed grant went to Nora Lapitan, a crop and soil sciences professor, and her team to fund research looking into utilizing the Miscanthus plant as an alternative source of biomass fuel.Â
The seed grants serve to help finance research projects so they will be able to obtain further, more extensive funding in the future. This is the second round of seed grants the Supercluster has distributed.
"(The seed grants) jumpstart new and promising activities so that faculty members will be able to be particularly competitive in turning…seed grants into larger funding opportunities from agencies or companies," said Professor Bryan Willson, the chief scientific officer for the Clean Energy Supercluster.Â
"It's always easier to get funding once you've gotten preliminary results from an idea," Willson said. He said the seed grants do not provide enough money to finance the researchers' projects, but provides them with resources to secure more funding in the future.
Though over 40 projects applied for the grants, the Supercluster was only able to fund 10 of them. The grant amounts were determined by budget proposals the researchers submitted and ranged from $15,000 to $29,000Â
Willson said the seed grants will both increase and diversify CSU's clean energy and carbon dioxide capture research and said the financed projects represent a broad spectrum of research.
Some of the projects concentrate on the mechanical side of clean energy technology while others are focused on its social science component, he said.Â
"I'm excited about different aspects of all of them," Willson said.Â
The funds for the seed grants came from the profits of successful Clean Energy Supercluster ventures and money allocated to the Supercluster's budget by the vice president of research Jim Sites, the steering committee chair of the Supercluster, said.
An $18,000 seed grant went to Nora Lapitan, a crop and soil sciences professor, and her team to fund research looking into utilizing the Miscanthus plant as an alternative source of biomass fuel.Â
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