The search for the renewable, alternative fuels has become critically important in the last couple of years with the crude oil prices increasing beyond $100 per barrel with no decline in sight. Many universities are increasing their resources to bioenergy by establishing research centers to bring together the interdisciplinary research required in bioenergy between various academic disciplines. With the anticipated increases in federal funding to bioenergy in the next five years, more universities are planning to establish Bioenergy Research Centers. There has been no consolidated research to catalog and evaluate the accomplishments of the bioenergy research centers hitherto. This study will identify the existing Bioenergy Research Centers and their work at the Tier 1 and Tier 2 universities in the United States and Canada. In this study, we will compare the research focus of these research centers and analyze their research, collaborations, organization structures, areas of specialization and their success in fulfilling their stated mission. A survey instrument will be designed to collect specific information on state and federal funding received, number of researchers, involvement with graduate and doctoral programs, and their future strategies. We expect this study to provide consolidated comparative information on the common areas of research pursued, areas with lesser focus, interaction with the graduate curriculums. The major accomplishments of this study will be a summarization of the current university Bioenergy Research Centers' fields of concentration and comparative evaluation of their accomplishments. We will report on the characteristics and structure of the more successful centers and look at the collaborations that focus on the regional specific needs and future economic development goals.