7 U.S.C. § 8114 — Sun grant program

(a) Establishment. The Secretary must run a grant program for the sun grant centers and subcenter named in subsection (b), to: (1) boost national energy security by developing and spreading biobased energy technology; (2) diversify U.S. farming and make it more environmentally sustainable through biobased energy and products; (3) diversify rural economies through biobased energy and products; and (4) make bioenergy and biomass research more efficient by improving coordination among the Department of Agriculture, other federal agencies, and land-grant colleges and universities. (b) Grants. (1) The Secretary must fund six centers: (A) a North-central center covering Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming; (B) a Southeastern center covering Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; (C) a South-central center covering Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; (D) a Western center covering Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and certain insular areas; (E) a Northeastern center covering Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia; and (F) a Western Insular Pacific subcenter covering Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau. (2) The Secretary splits the money equally among the five centers in (A)-(E). The Western center must then share part of its money with the Pacific subcenter, following the Secretary's guidance. (3) If a center or subcenter fails to meet this section's requirements — found through its annual report or a Secretary's audit — it becomes ineligible for further grants for however long the Secretary decides. (c) Use of Funds. (1) Competitive Grants: (A) each center or subcenter must use 75% of its funds for competitive grants to eligible institutions (as defined in section 3157(b)(7)) located in its region. (B) Recipients must use these grants for multi-institution, multistate research, extension, and education programs on developing and using the technology, matching the goals in subsection (a). (C) In awarding these grants, a center must: (i) seek and accept proposals, review them for merit through peer review like the Secretary's process under section 7613, and award grants based on merit, quality, and relevance; (ii) prioritize programs that match the research plan approved under subsection (d); (iii) keep grant terms to 5 years or less; and (iv) generally require the recipient to match at least 20% of the activity's cost with non-federal funds — except this matching rule does not apply to "fundamental research," and can be reduced or dropped for "applied research" if the center decides that's necessary and follows the Secretary's guidance. Grant funds cannot be used to build, buy, expand, remodel, or alter buildings or facilities. Centers cannot recover their own indirect costs from these grants. (2) Administrative Expenses: a center may use up to 4% of its funds for the administrative costs of running the competitive grants. (3) Research, Extension, and Education: centers must use the remaining funds for their own multi-institution, multistate research, extension, and education programs on developing and using the technology. (d) Plan for Research Activities. (1) Subject to available funding, the centers must work with land-grant colleges and private industry to jointly write a plan for the Secretary's approval, addressing bioenergy, biomass, and bioproduct research priorities at the state and regional level. (2) Planning funds come from the money set aside for administrative expenses under (c)(2). (3) Centers must use this plan when awarding competitive grants under (c)(1). (e) Grant Information Analysis Center. The centers must maintain an analysis and data-support center — the Sun Grant Information Analysis Center — at the North-central center. (f) Annual Reports. Within 90 days after each fiscal year ends, each center or subcenter must report to the Secretary on its policies, priorities, and operations for that year, including (1) the results of its peer and merit review process, and (2) progress on the priorities from the research plan in subsection (d)(1). (g) Authorization of Appropriations. Congress authorized $75,000,000 for each fiscal year from 2008 through 2023 to run this section, with up to $4,000,000 of that per year set aside for the Grant Information Analysis Center in subsection (e).