Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited a state-of-the-art bioindustrial facility at Renmatix, where he announced that his department will provide $25 million to fund research and development of next-generation renewable energy and biobased products from a variety of biomass sources.
Individual projects are funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative, established in the 2008 Farm Bill. The funded research will help increase the availability of alternative renewable fuels and biobased products to diversify the nation's energy resources. The Department of Energy will provide additional grants through this program. Each grant was made through a competitive selection process.
Grant recipients are required to contribute a minimum of 20 percent matching funds for research and development projects, and 50 percent matching funds for demonstration projects.
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