March 18, 2008
Bioeconomy workshop to foster campus collaborations
A workshop targeted to Purdue faculty and staff across campus will focus on enabling cross-disciplinary collaborative research in bioenergy and bio-based products. This no-cost workshop is hosted by the College of Agriculture and the Energy Center at Discovery Park.
Called Bioenergy and Beyond, the workshop will be held Saturday, April 5, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Beck Agricultural Center located at the Purdue Agronomy Center for Research and Education on Highway 52 north of West Lafayette.
"We want to identify Purdue faculty and staff in many research specialties and then form teams for the purpose of attracting new funding to the university for bioeconomy research," said Sonny Ramaswamy, director of agricultural research programs. "We particularly want to incorporate the social sciences into our agriculture, engineering, and science research efforts."
The program is designed to identify new, and enhance existing, synergies among research faculty at Purdue. One session of the workshop will assess university needs in additional personnel, facilities, and equipment.
"We want to take a serious look at Purdue's strengths and weaknesses in bioenergy research so as to make sure that we submit the strongest grant proposals that we can," said Ramaswamy.
Part of the workshop will focus on grants available from agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Lessons learned from previous grant submissions will be discussed.
Faculty and staff should register for Bioenergy and Beyond at the Discovery Park Energy Center Web site at www.purdue.edu/dp/energy/bioEconomy_workshop/.
For more information on the workshop, which will include breakout discussions during lunch, contact Carl Huetteman, in the College of Agriculture, at 496-7550.