Homeworld Collective is funding ambitious, early-stage projects at the intersection of biotechnology and greenhouse gas removal. Grant amounts will range from $50k - $150k.


Read more: Proposal Guidelines and Template


Application closes February 28th @ 11:59pm EST.

This submission window for this grant has ended.

Submitted Projects

50

Total Funding

$1,000,000

Submission Deadline

Feb 28, 2025

About This Grant

Biotechnology is a high-growth area that has significant potential for greenhouse gas removal. Homeworld Collective identified that risk-tolerant funding and interaction between teams have been limiting factors to the deployment of this new approach to sustainability challenges.

The Garden Grants program facilitates learning and collaboration by publicly discussing important problems for climate while protecting applicants’ novel approaches. 

Proposals to Homeworld Garden Grants have two main sections: the problem statement (3,000 characters) and the solution statement (10,000 characters). The Proposal Guidelines and Template document provides detailed instructions for completing your applicaiton. 

Proposals may address problems identified by applicants, or pre-written problems originating from our Problem Statement Repository

Submitted Projects

50

sMMOptimized: Engineering Streamlined Methane Biocatalysts

Methane’s climate impact necessitates scalable biocatalysts for oxidation at low concentrations. sMMO offers...

Enzyme Engineering for Scalable, Carbon Negative Plastics

Gigaton-scale CO2 removal can be achieved by developing carbon-negative sources for everyday plastics. To...

Getting Out of the Tank: Bridging Enzymatic Activity to Open Air Catalysis

Atmospheric methane is a GHG with 84x more warming potential than CO2. While chemical engineers struggle...

Improving biological methane oxidation rate for atmospheric methane removal

CH4 accounts for ~ 40% of greenhouse gases’ contribution to short-term global warming, making it an attractive...

Derisking Bioreactors for Atmospheric methane Removal: A Techno-Economic Framework

To de-risk atmospheric methane removal (AMR) bioreactors, we will develop a techno-economic framework to...

Low Cost Sensors for Soil Methane Uptake

Affordable methane sensors capable of measuring concentrations around atmospheric level are a crucial tool...

Harnessing the Bark Side of the Methane Cycle: A Natural Climate Solution

Trees play a vital role in sequestering atmospheric carbon. Barks contain diverse microbes that mediate...

Accelerated plant rubisco evolution

All biological carbon fixation is gated by the enzyme rubisco, which has become suboptimal as CO2 levels...

Genetic Tools for Particulate Methane Monooxygenase Expression in Native and Heterologous Hosts

Genetic tools that enable the transversal of methanotroph pMMO expression plasmids through E. coli are needed...

Engineer efficient water-soluble methane monooxygenase particulate MMO

We will use a facile protein engineering approach to a) convert membrane-bound protein methane monooxygenase...

Electrospun Silk Mats with Encapsulated Microalgae for Carbon Capture

Electrospun silk fibroin mats can encapsulate and maintain the extended function of photosynthetic microalgae...

'Growing' global carbon stocks: Applications of synthetic biology to constrain mechanisms of polymer degradation in soil

Soil organic matter, rich in plant polymers, comprises a large fraction of the global carbon budget, but...

Open-source biomass pretreatment for CDR (HWC GG)

An open-source system for biomass feedstock pre-processing to enable carbon removal and valorization

Biomapping of Tree-based Atmospheric Methane Removal (TAMR) for Technological Development

Tree surfaces can be an effective approach for AMR, although foundational information is lacking. Here...

Capture and utilize methane with soluble methane monooxygenase in Escherichia coli and methylotrophic yeast.

The soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) enzyme catalyzes the oxygen dependent conversion of methane to...

Methane monooxygenases in plants for methane detoxification

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, contributes significantly to climate change, with human activities accounting...

Harnessing ocean microbiomes for closed-loop carbon circularity

We propose a self-sustaining microbial system for scalable CO₂ sequestration and biopolymer synthesis using...

Which methanotrophs drive methane degradation in the phyllosphere of trees?

Methane (CH4) accounts for ~30% of climate forcing and atmospheric methane removal (AMR) has significant...

Development of self-sustaining k-strategist microbiome reactors for dilute methane removal

We propose two approaches for developing a k-strategist microbiome reactor for removing dilute (<20 ppm...

Rewiring bio-electrochemical reactors for atmospheric methane removal

Atmospheric methane removal is critical to mitigating climate change. Bio-electrochemical reactors (BERs...

ArtiMeth - Artificial methane monooxygenases using Cu and Fe metal coordination centers

Artificial methane monooxygenases (MMOs) using Cu and Fe metal coordination centers within coiled-coil tetratricopeptide...

Continuous siderophore-mediated olivine weathering

We propose that bacterial siderophores could accelerate mineral weathering reactors as an additive. Our...

Engineering Root System in Crops via the Ethylene Pathway: Larger, Deeper, and Steeper Roots for Improved Carbon Storage

The carbon cycle is disrupted by human activities, leading to global warming. The Harnessing Plants Initiative...

Keeping up with the Phototrophs

We propose a 1-year research effort to develop an automatable cellular agriculture platform for cultivating...

Engineering Enhanced Methane Monooxygenases for Low-Concentration Methane Conversion

Atmospheric methane, contributing to 30% of global warming, remains challenging to mitigate due to its low...

BIFROST: Biogenic Insect-Fabricated Reactors for the Oxidation of Stray Trace gases

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, significantly impacting atmospheric heat retention. Conventional approaches...

Profiling in vivo pMMO activity and lipid order in methanotrophs using designed fluorescent biosensors

Remediating methane requires the uniquely potent enzyme methane monooxygenase (MMO). All attempts to express...

Quantify Response of Atmospheric Methane-Oxidizing Bacteria to Environmental Changes using AI-empowered Microbial Model

Quantifying environmental factors influencing the growth of atmospheric methane-oxidizing bacteria (atmMOB...

Harnessing Photosynthetic Bioweathering for Carbon Sequestration in Mine Pit Lake Waters

This proposal addresses scalable CO₂ removal by enhancing mineral dissolution and precipitation with photosynthetic...

New-to-nature Enzymatic Solutions for Methane Capture

We will engineer synthetic enzymes, metabolic pathways, and microbial hosts capable of removing methane...

e-TerraCH4Fix –Methane and GHG Mitigation using Electroactive Microbial Consortia

This study explores soil-based microbial fuel cells (MFCs) enriched with electroactive methanotrophs to...

BLUeprints for Engineering atmospheric Methane Oxidation (BLUEMOX)

Methane oxidising bacteria are the sole biological sink for atmospheric CH4. Their oxidation rates are however...

Carbon sequestration via microbially mediated valorization of phosphogypsum

The conversion of CO2 into carbonate minerals is a potentially scalable technology for CO2 removal. Most...

Coupling of microbial carbon capture and utilization (microCCU) and direct air capture (DAC)

Reducing atmospheric CO2 is critical to mitigating climate change, and negative emission technologies (NETs...

Engineering a methanol-binding transcription factor

Enhancing the ability of methane monooxygenase (MMO) enzymes to oxidize atmospheric CH4 could substantially...

Biogas-to-Biomass: Continuous hyper-evolution of sMMO to realize synthetic methanotrophy

Soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) is an enzyme capable of fixing atmospheric methane and when applied...

Worms at Work: Scoping Natural Carbon Sequestration at Scale

For centuries, scientists noted earthworms' exploits as ecosystem engineers. Recent research shows the feasibility...

Highly-sensitive, real-time enzyme methane oxidation rate measurements using an electrochemical assay

A low-cost, rapid, and highly sensitive assay is needed to measure methane gas oxidation rates by methane...

Underground solutions for aboveground climate challenges: leveraging subterranean microbial processes for GHG removal

Caves are known to function as massive sink of atmospheric methane. However, the potential for artificial...

Direct from Air Enzyme-Accelerated CO2 Gas Mineralization to Carbonates

Textile-based wet filters with immobilized carbonic anhydrase enable creating new kinds of reactors that...

Techno-economic and life-cycle assessments of dilute methane removal by flow-through multi-tray biofilm reactors

About 75% of methane emissions are too dilute (<1,000 ppm) to be mitigated by existing technologies...

Accelerating Deployment of Biochar Carbon Sequestration via Microbial Syngas Utilization

Biochar production is a durable method of carbon sequestration deployed today, but scalability is limited...

Utilize lichen to reduce GHG emissions via enhancing current concrete infrastructure

This project explores the use of lichen to transform existing concrete structures into passive greenhouse...

Validation of a computational, data-driven reforestation design system

1.6 GtC is emitted every year from deforestation. Understanding best practices for afforestation is essential...

Enhancing Atmospheric Methane Oxidation in Soils

Soils are the largest terrestrial sink of atmospheric CH4; even small increases in methanotrophy over large...

Growing through the cracks

We aim to explore the feasibility of Neo-pedogenesis and bio-remediation as primary applications of CDR...