Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Lignin Engineering, Analysis, and Research for Sustainable Technology (CLEAReST)

工程研究中心的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。ERC竞赛不需要规划赠款，但旨在培养团队规划集中的中心规模工程研究的能力。该规划补助金的目标是建立NSF赞助的木质素工程，分析和可持续技术研究中心（CLEAReST），这将作为开发生物质转化的木质素优先工艺所需的科学进步的焦点。 CLEAReST的成立是受到全球需要寻找芳烃石化产品的可再生替代品的启发，以可持续地解决能源，气候和粮食安全需求。 这些芳香族化合物存在于日常产品中，包括燃料、塑料、个人护理产品和药品。 木质素是一种存在于所有植物中的生物聚合物，是芳香族化学品的唯一可再生来源，但由于其复杂的异质结构而难以有效利用。 在世界范围内，人们越来越认识到利用木质素是减少人类工业活动对环境和气候影响的重要技术部分。 通过在其核心科学和工程任务中取得科学进步，CLEAReST将降低实现这一目标的技术障碍。 这将通过与全球木质素科学合作伙伴和行业领导者合作来加速，以解决木质素加工中最相关的问题。 突破性的科学和工程的木质素将培养追求五个平行，相互交织的使命。 首先，将揭示和设计控制木质素生物合成的基本生命规则，以创造能够被解构为有价值的构建块而不损失食物价值的植物原料。 其次，将组装专用的分析工具，以提供从植物细胞到最终产品的木质素的全面表征。 第三，将推进木质素解构科学，以提供将给定的木质素源转化为最合适的中间体化学品的有效方法。 第四，木质素衍生产品的发现为基础的应用将通过开发明确的木质素分子的结构-性质关系而得到推进。 最后，CLEAReST的木质素科学的系统思维和融合研究驱动的进步将被用作招募不同学生群体的平台，并为跨学科的科学劳动力提供教育，推广和知识转移。 该中心整合了前四个任务，以寻求科学突破，推动综合木质素科学从植物中的初始生物合成到升级产品中的结构-性能关系。 这项规划拨款将通过召集潜在的合作者和利益相关者举办一系列研讨会，在CLEAReST的任务范围内确定高影响力的工程科学目标。 为了实现扩大来自各种背景的科学家在木质素利用挑战中的影响和参与的目标，规划补助金包括加强与社会科学研究人员联系的活动，以更好地了解在农村社区扩大生物精炼概念的经济，教育和社会影响，从而走向分散处理木质素作为芳香化学品的可再生来源，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.The objective of this planning grant is to move towards a NSF-sponsored Center for Lignin Engineering, Analysis, and Research for Sustainable Technology (CLEAReST), which will serve as a focal point for the scientific advancements required to develop lignin-first processes for biomass conversion. Formation of CLEAReST is inspired by the global need to find renewable replacements for aromatic petrochemicals to sustainably address energy, climate, and food security needs. These aromatic compounds are found in everyday products including fuels, plastics, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals. Lignin, a biopolymer found in all plants, is the only renewable source of aromatic chemicals, but is difficult to effectively utilize because of its complex, heterogeneous structure. Worldwide, there is growing recognition that utilizing lignin is an essential technological part of reducing the environmental and climate impact of human industrial activity. By making scientific advances in its core scientific and engineering missions, CLEAReST will lower technological barriers to realizing this goal. This will be accelerated by cooperating with global lignin science partners and industrial leaders to address the most relevant problems in lignin processing. Breakthroughs in science and engineering of lignin will be cultivated by pursuing five parallel, intertwined missions. First, the fundamental rules of life governing lignin biosynthesis will be uncovered and engineered to create plant feedstocks able to be deconstructed into valuable building blocks without loss of food value. Second, dedicated analytical tools will be assembled to provide comprehensive characterization of lignin all the way from plant cell to final product. Third, the science of lignin deconstruction will be advanced to provide efficient ways to convert a given lignin source to the most suitable set of intermediate chemicals. Fourth, discovery-based applications of lignin-derived products will be advanced by developing structure-property relationships for well-defined lignin molecules. Finally, the systems thinking and convergence research-driven advances in lignin science of CLEAReST will be used as a platform for recruiting a diverse cohort of students and providing education, outreach, and knowledge transfer to an interdisciplinary scientific workforce. The Center integrates the first four missions to seek scientific breakthroughs that advance integrated lignin science from its initial biosynthesis in plants to structure-property relationships in upgraded products. This planning grant will define high-impact engineering science targets within the missions of CLEAReST by bringing together potential collaborators and stakeholders for a series of workshops. To move towards the goal of broadening the impact and participation of scientists from all backgrounds in the lignin utilization challenge, the planning grant includes activities to strengthen ties with social science researchers to better understand the economic, educational, and social implications of expanding the biorefining concept in rural communities, thus moving towards decentralized processing of lignin as a renewable source of aromatic chemicals, pharmaceutical precursors, and advanced materials.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.