The Michigan State University (MSU) (United States) has received funds from the United States Departments of Agriculture and Energy for the establishment of an “easily accessible, web-based genomic database” for bioenergy crops that can be utilized for ethanol production. The project is headed by C. Robin Buell, associate professor of plant biology, along with Kevin Childs, a postdoctoral researcher. Among the targets of the project are: (1) creation and centralization of genomic databases of the target bioenergy crops (corn, rice, maize, wheat, grasses, poplar, willow, pine, etc), (2) provide data-mining and search tools, and (3) provide a web site where scientists can access the databases. According to Associate Professor Buell, "this will save researchers a lot of effort, so we expect it to be a valuable resource for scientists at MSU and around the world"..