Summary of Federal Cooperative Agreement Award

Awarding Agency and Program: The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) under the federal grant program CFDA 81.135 awarded this Cooperative Agreement to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on April 29, 2026, with $5.5 million in obligated federal funding. The project, titled "Technologies to Emend and Obviate Synthetic Nitrogen's Toll on Emissions (TEOSYNTE)," will be completed by April 28, 2030.

Products and Services: Under this award, the N2CEREALS research team will develop improved corn and sorghum cultivars and nitrogen-fixing microbial consortia designed to substantially reduce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer dependency while maintaining crop yields. The primary deliverables include: (1) enhanced corn and sorghum germplasms developed through traditional breeding to host nitrogen-fixing bacteria on both below-ground and aerial root systems; (2) improved nitrogen-fixing bacterial strains capable of fixing and delivering nitrogen across both root environments; and (3) tailored bacterial consortia for seed application. These integrated plant-microbe solutions are designed to achieve a 60 percent reduction in synthetic nitrogen fertilizer inputs on corn and 50 percent reduction on sorghum, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by over 50 percent. The project aligns with ARPA-E's mission to advance high-impact energy technologies addressing climate change mitigation and emissions reduction in agricultural systems.