Switch Bioworks awarded $2m in federal funding for technology to reduce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in crop production

Switch Bioworks, a biotechnology company developing low-cost and sustainable fertilizers, has been awarded a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to research and develop a biotechnological approach turning microbes into nitrogen fertilizer producers.

The grant will catalyze and expand Switch Bioworks' R&D, which is centered on enabling nitrogen-fixing microbes to compete and establish themselves on crop plant roots before switching to fertilizer production – an industry-wide challenge that has been limiting biofertilizer cost and performance. The product will be applied at planting with existing farmer practices and have superior unit economics and sustainability benefits over traditional fertilizers.

"Engineering commercially relevant biological nitrogen fixation for cereal crops like corn has challenged scientists for over 50 years," said Founder and CEO of Switch Bioworks, Dr. Tim Schnabel. "This grant is a major endorsement of our science-first approach and will allow us to pursue new, high-impact research directions towards our goal of dropping the cost of fertilizer for farmers while being stewards of the environment."

Switch Bioworks' project is one of nine selected for funding under ARPA-E's program: Technologies to Emend and Obviate Synthetic Nitrogen's Toll on Emissions (TEOSYNTE). This program supports the development of new technologies that lower nitrous oxide emissions, a greenhouse gas from nitrogen fertilizers with a global warming potential over 250 times higher than carbon dioxide.

"We are delighted to have been selected to participate in this ambitious ARPA-E program," says Principal Investigator Dr. Marcelo Bueno Batista. "This funding will enable our team to pursue critically important R&D projects in building and tuning genetic switches to optimize their benefit on root colonization and nitrogen delivery."

Nearly half of U.S.-grown corn is used for ethanol production, a key ingredient in fuels like motor gasoline and other chemicals. The nitrogen fertilizer required to grow corn is not only the biggest polluter in the bioethanol supply chain but also one of the biggest budget costs in modern farm operations. Development of new technologies to reduce reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer will substantially impact the environment and economy, safeguarding the future of agriculture and energy production in the U.S.