Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (2020 Presidential transition)
| Book 3 - Organization Overview
|
|---|
| Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020 |
DOE’s mission is, in part, to enhance U.S. security and economic growth through transformative science, technology innovation, and market solutions to meet our energy, nuclear energy, and environmental challenges.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) supports DOE’s mission differently than other programs because it focuses on high risk/high potential advanced energy technologies. Pursuant to its authorizing statute – The America COMPETES Act of 2007 – ARPA-E accelerates “transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty.” Its role is to identify, fund and actively manage research projects that will overcome the long-term and high-risk technological barriers preventing a potentially transformational technological innovation from the stage where private investment can drive it into a marketable product.
Using a highly entrepreneurial funding model and a portfolio approach, ARPA-E supports specific transformational energy technologies where a short-term R&D effort can deliver game-changing results over a defined period of time. ARPA-E’s portfolio of technologies can potentially work in synergy to address multiple goals simultaneously. The Agency supports a number of competitive approaches to reach technology targets, but ultimately lets the private sector select those approaches best for business.
ARPA-E’s Program Directors, acknowledged leaders in their respective fields of science and engineering, pitch new technical programs to agency leadership. The agency’s streamlined awards process enables ARPA-E to act quickly and catalyze cutting-edge areas of energy research, with rigorous program design, competitive project selection processes, and active program management to ensure thoughtful expenditures. Program Directors establish milestones with researchers and in the event those milestones are not met, projects can be terminated in short order. ARPA-E’s Program Directors play an active role in project management, including regular reviews of project progress.
ARPA-E prioritizes projects that will enhance the economic and energy security of the United States and ensures that we maintain a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. ARPA-E evaluates all of the proposals that it receives to determine whether or not they support these objectives.
Mission Statement
ARPA-E’s mission is to overcome long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of energy technologies. Its goal is to “enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies” that:
- reduce imports of energy from foreign sources;
- reduce energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases;
- improve the energy efficiency of all economic sectors; and
- ensure that the United States maintains or re-establishes a technological lead in developing advanced energy technologies
Budget
| Fiscal Year | Budget |
|---|---|
| FY 2019 enacted | $366,000,000 |
| FY 2020 | $425,000,000 |
| FY 2021 request | $0 |
Human Resources
The ARPA-E Director is authorized under The America COMPETES Act to use special hiring authority to bring on technical staff without regard to civil service constraints. ARPA-E technical staff are hired for 2-3 year terms, in order to ensure a steady stream of new ideas and approaches. The agency is always hiring and refreshing its staff.
As of September 2020, ARPA-E has ~55 Federal employees. ARPA-E currently leases the 8th floor suite of 950 L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, DC.
History
In 2005, leaders from both parties in Congress asked the National Academies to “identify the most urgent challenges the U.S. faces in maintaining leadership in key areas of science and technology,” as well as specific steps policymakers could take to help the U.S. compete, prosper, and stay secure in the 21st Century.
In its report for Congress, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, the National Academies called for decisive action, warning policymakers that U.S. advantages in science and technology – which made the country a world leader for decades – had already begun to erode.
The report recommended that Congress establish an Advanced Research Projects Agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) modeled after the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – the agency credited with such innovations as GPS, the stealth fighter, and computer networking.
In 2007, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law The America COMPETES Act, which officially authorized ARPA-E’s creation. In 2009, Congress appropriated $400 million to the new Agency, which funded ARPA-E’s first projects. Since 2009, ARPA-E has funded more than 950 potentially transformational energy technology projects. Many of these projects have already demonstrated early indicators of technical success. For example, as of September 2020:
- 166 ARPA-E projects have attracted more than $6.5 billion in private sector follow-on funding.
- 86 companies were formed by ARPA-E projects, including QuantumScape
, which just announced its IPO and $3 billion valuation.
- 229 projects have partnered with other government agencies to further development.
- ARPA-E projects have resulted in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issuing 609 patents.
Functions
In order to overcome the long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of energy technologies, ARPA-E is:
- Identifying and promoting revolutionary advances in fundamental sciences
- Translating scientific discoveries and cutting- edge inventions into technological innovations
- Accelerating transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty
ARPA-E coordinates closely with other DOE programs, the rest of the federal government, academia, and the private sector to identify “white space” where others are not making investments in innovation and where ARPA-E’s support would be appropriate. Typically, these technologies involve entirely new learning curves, which offer the prospect of transformational and disruptive technologies with dramatically improved cost-to performance ratios compared to present- generation technologies.
The inherent design of ARPA-E makes it impossible to predict in detail the specific technologies that will garner future investment. Nevertheless, ARPA-E envisions building from existing learning, often in a nonlinear and unexpected fashion, with a focus on both transportation and stationary energy, in the following broad areas:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Fusion
- Nuclear
- Carbon Capture and Storage
- Electrification
- Biofuels
- Hydrokinetic Power
Recent Organization Accomplishments
- In 2020, ARPA-E launched the first-of-its-kind Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program. SCALEUP builds from ARPA-E’s primary R&D focus to support the scaling of high-risk and potentially disruptive new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. SCALEUP is a means to address promising energy technologies that require scale-up or pre-pilot projects to enable a path to market and ultimately lead to realized commercial impact. SCALEUP performers are required to have at least one Commercialization Partner. Commercialization Partners may include potential customers, end-users, suppliers, corporate investors, manufacturers, and distributors, etc. Financial Partners, which may include venture capitalists, accelerators/ incubators, angel/impact investors, etc. are optional, but are considered in the selection process. Two projects were selected under a “Fast Track” option offered to applicants who could justify the urgency of their funding need in order to receive funding at an accelerated pace relative to the full program timeline. ARPA-E developed the “Fast-Track” in response to disruptions in the investor and R&D financing communities caused by COVID-19, as well as related capital concerns on the part of a number of SCALEUP applicants. Teams not selected for the “Fast-Track” option are still eligible and under consideration for funding under the full SCALEUP program, where selections are anticipated in January 2021.
Project Selections
| Program | Project Selections | Award | Announcement Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIFFERENTIATE | 23 | $15mm | 11/19/19 |
| BETHE | 15 | $32mm | 04/07/20 |
| PERFORM | 10 | $25mm | 04/23/20 |
| GEMINA | 9 | $27mm | 05/13/20 |
| FLECCS | 12 | $11.5mm | 07/13/20 |
| REPAIR | 10 | #33mm | 08/06/20 |
| REEACH | 8 | $18.5mm | 08/26/20 |
| ASCEND | 9 | $14.5mm | 08/26/20 |
| SMARTFARM | 6 | $16.5mm | 09/01/20 |
| GAMOW | $14 | $29mm | 09/02/20 |
Funding Opportunities (currently in the application and selection phases as of 10/1/2020):
| Program / Funding Opportunity | Announcement Date |
|---|---|
| SHARKS FOA | 04/09/20 |
| ULTIMATE FOA | 04/21/20 |
| ECOSynBio FOA | 09/10/20 |
Competitions
| Competition | Winners | Award | Announcement Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GO Competition Challenge 1 | 10 | $3.4mm | 02/12/20 |
Leadership Challenges
- COVID-related impacts on agency and performer operations: COVID-related remote work requirements and travel bans have forced many ARPA-E research performers to either slow down or, in some cases, stop work. ARPA-E will continue to work with funded researchers to ensure they can start work when conditions allow and where necessary, will modify cooperative agreements to extend the time period they have to complete their research.
- Program Director/Technology-to-Market Advisor recruiting: limited terms require constant recruiting: ARPA-E Program Directors and Technology-to-Market Advisors are hired for limited 2 to 3-year terms. This ensures a steady stream of new ideas in the agency, but also requires leadership to maintain constant recruitment efforts. The nature of ARPA-E programs requires the top tier of scientific minds as program directors, and these individuals are in high demand.
- Implementation of SCALEUP Projects: ARPA-E plans to select most of the performers under its first-of-its-kind SCALEUP program in January 2021. These are different than past ARPA¬-E projects in that they are closer to commercialization and require different forms of support. ARPA-E leaders, Program Directors, and Technology-to-Market Advisors will need to develop new procedures and policies to support SCALEUP performers.
- 2021 ARPA-E Summit – May 2021: ARPA-E is scheduled to hold its 11th Energy Innovation Summit in May 2021 at the Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. In addition to the normal challenges associated with managing such a large event, COVID-19 will likely impact Summit operations in a manner yet to be determined. ARPA-E leadership will need to work with its Summit production partner, event Power, to adapt Summit operations to provide the safest event possible, while still providing the energy innovation community the opportunity to network at one of its premiere events.
Critical Events and Action Items
SCALEUP program selection announcements
SCALEUP performer selections are scheduled to be announced in January 2021. ARPA-E will want to drive significant interest in the projects, as the program’s goal is to get them to pre-pilot stage with private sector support.
2021 Energy Innovation Summit
ARPA-E and its production partner, eventPower, will need to execute the 2021 Summit likely with changes from most year’s operations due to COVID-19-related restrictions.
OPEN 2021 Funding Opportunity
Historically, ARPA-E holds an OPEN funding opportunity every three years. Budget-permitting, ARPA-E will need to conduct the review and selection process, which typically includes thousands of applications across a wide range of energy-related technical areas.
