On or about March 2, 2012, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (“ARPA-E”) intends to issue an Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (“Open FOA” or “FOA”). The objective of the Open FOA is to identify high-risk, high-reward concepts for energy-related technologies that may enhance our nation’s energy and economic security. This FOA will be open to any energy-related technology that, if successful, will have a transformational and disruptive effect on the energy sector.
ARPA-E is seeking your comments on the draft Open FOA, which is appended hereto as Attachment A. An overview of the application process is provided in Section I.B of the draft FOA, and a draft list of Technical Categories and Subcategories is provided in Section I.E of the draft FOA. Please submit your written comments by email to ARPA-EOpenFOA@hq.doe.gov by 5 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. ARPA-E will not review or consider comments submitted by other means. Please insert “Comments on Draft Open FOA” in the subject line of your email, and include your name, organization, email address, and telephone number in the body of your email.
All feedback provided will be taken into consideration, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. Neither this Announcement nor Attachment A constitutes the formal request for this funding opportunity announcement. The Federal Government will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information.
This Announcement is also intended to provide an opportunity for potential Applicants to begin the process of developing partnerships and gathering data for their applications. Applicants should not rely on this Announcement or Attachment A for guidance on applying to the Open FOA. All of the information in this Announcement and Attachment A is subject to change. Applicants must refer to the final FOA issued in March 2012 for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding. ARPA-E will not review or consider noncompliant and/or nonresponsive applications.
Once the final FOA is issued in March 2012, Applicants will have a limited amount of time to submit a mandatory Notice of Intent in ARPA-E eXCHANGE, ARPA-E’s online application portal (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov). Applicants must submit a separate Notice of Intent for each Concept Paper through ARPA-E eXCHANGE by the deadline stated in the FOA. Failure to comply with this requirement will render the Applicant’s Concept Paper ineligible for consideration (see Section III.C.1 of the draft FOA).
Please note that the draft Open FOA is designated as DE-FOA-0000663. When issued in March 2012, the final Open FOA will have a different designation, namely DE-FOA-0000670.