Des Moines Register
06-28-07
Mistake costs ISU shot at research project
The inclusion of two USDA scientists dooms its application.
By PHILIP BRASHER
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington, D.C. - Failing to read the fine print doomed Iowa State University's
bid for a major role in a $375 million federal biofuel research program.
Iowa State was part of a consortium led by the J. Craig Venter Institute that
applied to the Energy Department to become one of three bioenergy research
centers. Ten to 15 Iowa State scientists would have been involved.
However, the application was rejected because Iowa State had included two U.S.
Agriculture Department scientists as advisers in the project, said Patrick
Schnable, director of Iowa State's Center for Plant Genomics.
Under DOE rules, the federal scientists were not supposed to have been part of
the research. Schnable declined to say who missed the rule but said it was not
an Iowa State employee.
The error means that Iowa State will have only a minor role in the DOE program:
Economists will provide some analysis for a consortium led by the University of
Wisconsin.
Iowa State's share is worth about $100,000 out of the $125 million that the
consortium was awarded, said Chad Hart, an economist at the Center for
Agricultural and Rural Development.
Iowa State missed out earlier this year on being part of petroleum giant BP's
$500 million bioenergy research program. Missing out on a major role in the DOE
program is another blow.
"It certainly isn't good news," Schnable said. "On the other hand, there are still a
lot of opportunities. This is a huge scientific and technical challenge."
DOE announced Tuesday that it would fund three research centers, including the
one led by the University of Wisconsin. Others will be based at the Energy
Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and its Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
The USDA scientists could have been dropped from Iowa State's application, but
the Energy Department refused to reconsider its rejection, Schnable said.
The rule that tripped up Iowa State stems from a legal restriction on funding the
activities of other departments, said Energy Department spokesman Megan
Barnett.
The Bush administration had originally planned to fund just two bioenergy
centers but decided to add a third after soliciting the applications, she said.