The National Science Foundation (NSF)’s efforts to make federal progress on biotechnology and biomanufacturing will continue in August and September with a series of six Advancement Workshops organized through the Catalyzing Across Sectors to Advance the Bioeconomy (CASA-Bio) initiative. The workshop topics were selected based on the feedback received through a series of CASA-Bio Town Halls held earlier this spring, and their proceedings will inform a government-wide roadmap for the future of bioeconomy research and development in both the public and private sectors. When completing the application form, interested participants are asked to describe a project they have worked on related to their workshop topic of interest and explain their anticipated contributions to the workshop. While no application deadline is listed on the CASA-Bio website, Lewis-Burke recommends applying as soon as possible as there will be a limited number of spots for each workshop. 

The six planned Advancement Workshops and dates are as follows. Each will include a 90-minute orientation a few days prior to the workshop and two full-day working sessions. More information about each workshop topic can be found on CASA-Bio’s website. 

• Accelerated Breeding for All Economically Important Crops and Animals (August 12, August 14-15) 
• Creating Value from Waste Carbon for a Circular Bioeconomy (August 12, August 14-15) 
• Enabling Resilient Biobased Supply Chains (August 19, August 21-22) 
• Food Protein Diversification (August 19, August 21-22) 
• Strategies to Improve Carbon and Energy Efficiency of Biomanufacturing (August 26, August 28-29) 
• Personalized Health and Medicine for Vaccine and Biologics Delivery (September 9, September 11-12)