The SERI microalgae culture collection was a collection from the Department of Energy's Aquatic Species Program

Aquatic Species Program

The Aquatic Species Program was a research program in the United States launched in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter and was funded by the United States Department of Energy, which over the course of nearly two decades looked into the production of energy using algae. Initially, the funding of the...

 cataloged at the Solar Energy Research Institute located in Golden, Colorado

Golden, Colorado

The City of Golden is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the edge of the foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Founded during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush on 16 June 1859, the mining camp was...

. The Aquatic Species Program ended in 1996 after its funding was cut, at which point its microalgae collection was moved to the University of Hawaii. In 1998 the University of Hawaii, partnered with the University of California at Berkeley, received a grant from the National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

 (NSF), for their proposal to develop commercial, medical, and industrial uses of microalgae, as well as new and more efficient techniques for cultivation.