The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) has issued Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) SCALEUP Ready to support the scaling of promising ARPA-E-funded technologies into early commercial products.
The purpose of this announcement is to facilitate collaboration among potential performing teams to respond to the SCALEUP Ready NOFO. The NOFO provides specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria. NOFO terms are controlling.
The SCALEUP Ready program provides a vital mechanism for the support of innovative energy research and development (R&D) that complements ARPA-E’s primary focus on early-stage transformational energy technologies that still require proof of concept. ARPA-E intends for this NOFO to remain open until closed or modified. Applications will be accepted at any time while this NOFO remains open.
ARPA-E’s mission is to develop and deploy transformational energy technologies in support of U.S. national security and economic competitiveness goals. ARPA-E funds the R&D of energy technologies that, among other goals, reduce imports of energy from foreign sources; reduce energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; and improve the energy efficiency of all economic sectors. ARPA-E’s authorizing statute directs the Agency to ensure that the U.S. maintains a lead in developing advanced energy technologies through accelerating transformational technological advances that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty.
Technologies that achieve substantial technical advancement under ARPA-E support may still face significant technical and commercial challenges upon completion of an award's funding period, and thus are at risk of being stranded in their development path once ARPA-E funding ends. Experience across ARPA-E’s diverse energy portfolios, and input from a wide range of investors and industry stakeholders, indicate that pre-commercial scaling projects are critical to establish practical performance and cost parameters. These pre-commercial scaling projects aim to 1) translate the performance achieved at bench scale to commercially scalable versions of the technology, 2) integrate the technology with broader systems, 3) provide extended performance data, and 4) validate the manufacturability and reliability of new energy technologies. Successful scaling projects should enable industry stakeholders to justify the substantial commitments of financial resources, personnel, manufacturing facilities, and materials necessary to subsequently deploy the technologies at a commercial scale.
The SCALEUP Ready program seeks to scale the most promising technologies previously funded by ARPA-E. The possibility of ARPA-E funded technologies becoming stranded along their development pathways leaves substantial intellectual property developed with American taxpayer dollars vulnerable to adoption by foreign competitors, who capture it for continued development and economic benefit overseas. This harms national competitiveness, as U.S. industries often fall behind on the development, scaling, and manufacturing of technologies necessary to compete in rapidly evolving global energy markets. Thus, projects selected for the program will meet ARPA-E’s statutory goals by “accelerating transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty.”
ARPA-E strongly encourages different organizations with outstanding entrepreneurial scientists and engineers along with commercialization and financial entities across diverse sectors to participate in this program. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible.
ARPA-E is compiling a Teaming Partner List for SCALEUP Ready as an optional tool that applicants may choose to utilize to facilitate the formation of new project teams and identify possible collaborations. Teaming Partners include organizations and individuals who can offer expertise, facilities, or other complementary resources toward a potential ARPA-E project. The teaming list includes fields for potential partners’ capabilities and areas of interest, understanding that expertise in one field can often be applied successfully to another field.
The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. ARPA-E intends to make the Teaming Partner List available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in October 2024. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically as long as the NOFO remains open to reflect the addition of new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.
Any organization that would like to be included on the Teaming Partner List should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/TeamingPartners.aspx. Required information includes the following: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.
In the “Brief Description of Capabilities” field, include the following details:
- Specify whether your organization is interested in participating in a potential project as a project team lead or partner.
- Describe the types of partners you are seeking to assemble for a project team if interested in participating as a project lead.
- Describe the role(s) your organization can fill if interested in participating as a partner. Roles may include but are not limited to potential customers, end-users, suppliers, strategic investors, manufacturers, distributors, or financial partners. Additionally, provide details on the specific capabilities offered.
By submitting a response to this Teaming Partner List, you consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E does not endorse or otherwise evaluate the qualifications of the entities that self-identify themselves for placement on the Teaming Partner List. ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted via email or other means will not be considered. Participation in and utilization of this list is completely voluntary. ARPA-E will not identify or facilitate connections through the teaming list and participation in the list has no bearing whatsoever on the evaluation of applications submitted to the NOFO.
This notice does not constitute a NOFO. Applicants must refer to the SCALEUP Ready NOFO, issued on October 2, 2024, for instructions on applying and for the terms and conditions of funding. Questions about the NOFO should be directed to ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov.