Four National Workshop Reports Showcase PNNL Leadership in DOE BER Research Planning

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) played leading roles in four Department of Energy (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) workshop reports published in April of this year. Developed through collaborations with experts from national laboratories, universities, and federal agencies, these reports play a central role in shaping BER’s scientific priorities, strategy directions, and future funding opportunities. 

“Participating in workshop reports is more important than people realize, especially in the Office of Science,” said Tim Scheibe, Earth scientist and director of program development. “They rely heavily on the research community to help them identify the key gaps in their mission areas, what the important areas are for BER science, and then they usually build their calls for proposals around these reports.” 

By serving as workshop organizers, cochairs, authors, and writing team members, PNNL researchers helped define research directions in atmospheric science, ecosystem research, microbiome engineering, and coastal systems that support BER’s mission to develop a predictive understanding of complex biological systems. 

The report, New Directions in Atmospheric Ice Processes Research, focused on advancing atmospheric systems science. Atmospheric scientist Susannah Burrows served on the organizing committee with authors and atmospheric scientists Laura Fierce, Mikhail Ovchinnikov, Israel Silber, and Kai Zhang. Their report identifies key knowledge gaps in atmospheric ice processes and recommends research priorities to improve understanding of cloud formation, precipitation, and Earth system modeling. The report recommends near-, medium-, and long-term research directions to improve predictive capabilities. 

Another report, Lessons Learned from Ecosystem-Scale Experimental Field Studies, captured decades of experience from large-scale ecosystem experiments. Scheibe served as a workshop organizer. The writing team included Earth scientists Vanessa Bailey, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Amy Goldman, and Nate McDowell, while Earth scientist Kirsten Hofmockel participated in the workshop. The report provides best practices for designing, managing, and completing future long-term field studies. It offers recommendations spanning the full research life cycle, including experimental design, data–model integration, project management, collaboration, and site decommissioning to improve scientific impact and return on investment. 

Engineering Microbial Communities: Frontier Science for Bioeconomy outlines research priorities for advancing microbial-community engineering to support the United States bioeconomy. Hofmockel served on the writing team, while synthetic biologist Rob Egbert participated in the workshop. Together with other experts, they helped identify key scientific knowledge gaps, technical limitations, and research opportunities in microbiome design, genetic engineering, field-scale applications, artificial intelligence, and how to build infrastructure capable of predicting and engineering microbial communities across complex conditions.

Completing PNNL’s contributions across BER mission areas, Critical Knowledge Gaps for Coastal Systems: Research Priorities for Coastal Regions of the Southeastern United States identifies research priorities to improve understanding and prediction of coastal systems increasingly affected by sea level rise, severe weather, and other stressors. Data scientist Xingyuan Chen served as the workshop cochair. Earth scientist Nick Ward served on the writing team, while Earth scientists Vanessa Garayburu-Caruso and Jianqiu Zheng and soil scientist Kaizad Patel participated in the workshop. The workshop highlighted critical gaps in observations, process understanding, and Earth system modeling and outlined research priorities to improve prediction of coastal ecosystem change and inform future DOE research investments.

“Workshops can open opportunities for staff who are in their early career stages,” said Scheibe. “As people get invited to workshops, they’re getting PNNL ideas into the conversation so they can be embodied in the workshop reports and shape future directions.” 

Together, these four reports demonstrate PNNL’s leadership in helping define the scientific priorities that guide BER research and future DOE investments. Readers can also find additional BER bioeconomy reports featuring PNNL participation on the DOE BER website.