NSF awards UT and partners $160 million to advance BRIDGES Engine for rural economic development
The collaborative initiative will generate millions of dollars in additional annual income for Tennessee farmers and create thousands of jobs across the state.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is part of a team that just won up to $160 million over the next 10 years from the National Science Foundation, one of only 12 winners chosen from more than 70 full proposals submitted to NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines competition.
The initiative, called BRIDGES, is built around a straightforward idea: take underused farmland across rural Tennessee and Alabama and turn it into a launchpad for biobased manufacturing. The plan is to grow specially developed perennial grasses and convert them into products for the automotive, construction, and packaging industries.
The BRIDGES team projects are expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in additional annual income for farmers in Tennessee and Alabama, while attracting more than $2 billion in private capital investment for bioproduct manufacturing. More than 10,000 people are expected to go through technical, agricultural, and manufacturing workforce training as the project ramps up.
“We are grateful to NSF for recognizing this ambitious project and the impact it will have on the industries and communities of Tennessee and the Southeast,” said UTK Chancellor Donde Plowman.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) also awarded a $10 million grant from the state’s Federal Innovation Grant Matching Fund to support BRIDGES.
“Tennessee is proud to support this initiative through TNECD’s Federal Innovation Grant Matching Fund, which helps our research institutions compete for transformational federal investments,” said Deputy Governor and TNECD Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter. He called the project a demonstration of how partnerships between higher education, industry, and government can turn research into real economic opportunity in rural communities.
BRIDGES builds on a $20 million investment UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory made in 2024 to grow the region’s circular bioeconomy work. The project is led jointly by UT, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Auburn University, AGgrow Tech LLC, and Volkswagen Group of America, and includes a broader coalition of 85 partners spanning academic institutions, industry, and community stakeholders.
Learn more about BRIDGES’ economic impact here.
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