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Through a radically open funding approach, Homeworld helps climate science move faster toward sustainability goals

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 12, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today, , a thriving community of biotechnologists working on planetary-scale problems, announced that they have awarded $1.3M in funds to 16 new biotechnology projects focused on solving pressing climate-related problems through their . Having received funding from leading philanthropies including Schmidt Futures and Grantham Foundation, the organization had originally planned to award $1M in grants. The quality and rigor of the submissions inspired Homeworld philanthropic supporters to increase the funding pool to $1.3M.

Garden Grants pioneered a new way of fundraising to support a new way of thinking in science: What is the most important problem that you could work on, and what would be the first milestone on that journey? The initial round of funding awarded grants for projects addressing environmental challenges through engineering proteins – the molecular machines of biology. The program invited solutions to applicant-defined problems as well as to pre-written problems derived from Homeworld Collective's open-source roadmapping work. The open call attracted an array of applicants, from undergraduates to Nobel laureates, submitting proposals on breakthrough ideas including:

• Unlocking bioavailability of phosphorus to reduce need for chemical fertilizers
• Developing new materials, e.g. silks for next-gen filtration technology
• Engineering plants to photosynthesize faster
• Catalyzing direct air capture of CO2
• Engineering biofuel production enzymes that work in challenging chemical environments

"The Garden Grants program is our first initiative to catalyze the growth of climate biotechnology and create the resources needed to make it happen, and it's been an incredible success," said Daniel Goodwin, Homeworld Collective Cofounder and Executive Director. "We had an abundance of strong applications beyond what we could initially support. Because of that interest, we secured additional funds from Homeworld's philanthropic funders so that we could award more funds to more researchers."

The inaugural Garden Grants program is showing early success in mobilizing bioengineers towards climate work and roadmapping key problems to solve in climate biotech. A first-of-its-kind feature of the program, unprecedented in grantmaking, is that a portion of each application is published. By publicly sharing the challenges being addressed, the program invites shared knowledge and enhances public discourse, allowing for collective progress on critical biotech challenges to advance climate action.

"We were thrilled," said Paul Reginato, Science Director and Cofounder of Homeworld Collective, "that 50% of the applications were from applicants exploring climate biotech for the first time. There is so much biotech talent out there that can help us address planetary-scale problems, and we're glad to provide a pathway into the space. We are empowering an attitude of action-oriented climate optimism. We're pairing problem-centric discourse with funding opportunities, so that people can go beyond understanding what needs to be done and turn their concern for climate change into action."

Support from Homeworld extends beyond funding. Even for projects and initiatives that do not receive funding, the team offers an extensive assessment as well as coaching to the applicants. "We learned," added Daniel Goodwin, "that one of our applicants who did not receive funding took our feedback and used it to improve their proposal and subsequently received funding. Homeworld, at its core, is a community, and seeks to strengthen the field of climate biotech in whatever way possible."

Climate biotech has the potential to become a powerful platform for multiple industries including mining, food systems, manufacturing, conservation, and carbon removal. This presents a huge opportunity for passionate biotechnology researchers, but the field is one of the most underdeveloped and underfunded fields within the climate technology space. Homeworld Collective was founded with the mission to address this issue, grow the field of climate biotechnology, and accelerate the development and deployment of gigaton-scale climate solutions.

The Garden Grants program, launched in September 2023, is an initiative of Homeworld Collective (a member of the Schmidt Futures Network), a non-profit startup dedicated to growing the nascent field of climate biotech. Homeworld is supported by top philanthropic organizations including Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Schmidt Futures, operating under the idea that it is possible to support the community and the individual at the same time. The .

About Homeworld Collective

Homeworld Collective is a thriving community of biotechnologists working on planetary-scale problems. We are igniting the growth of climate biotechnology.

Built upon the values of community building, knowledge creation, and converting ideas into action through accessible funding, Homeworld Collective is the go-to source for talented scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and funders committed to maximizing the impact of climate biotechnology on planetary health. Through our experiences with the still-nascent community, we have identified needs that must be met to advance climate biotech beyond its present ideas-limited regime and accelerate it toward community-scale hyperproductivity.

Building the field of climate biotech requires funding. Garden Grants is our system for accomplishing just that and getting funding in the hands of biotechnologists working on solving planetary-scale problems. Beyond fast funding, Garden Grants facilitates learning and collaboration by publicly sharing the problems that proposals address while protecting applicants' novel ideas. Our first grant program launched with nearly $1M in funding for projects covering climate biotech solutions that utilize protein engineering.

Not every solution fits inside existing industries and research communities. Because climate biotech is an emerging field, we know that we need to rely on expertise from other industries and domains. Through collaborative projects, workshops, events, field trips, and discourse, we support growth of relationships, formation of teams, and generation of community knowledge.

Homeworld Collective was founded in 2023 and is proudly based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit homeworld.bio.

Media Contact

Heather Stafford, Jones-Dilworth, Inc., 443-848-8617, [email protected] 

SOURCE Homeworld Collective