SUMMARY:
ARPA-E is seeking information to help frame a potential new funding opportunity for public-private partnerships supporting the further refinement, scaling, and piloting of successful ARPA-E technologies. The potential program would collaborate with investors and private sector partners to advance promising technologies developed under ARPA-E awards (both prior and ongoing) to pre-pilot and pilot R&D projects. The projects would need to demonstrate scalability, reliability, and manufacturability. Success of these scale-up/pilot projects will establish the path forward to continued private sector development and deployment of these transformational technologies. In addition to the energy-related benefits, this development would establish a new manufacturing base for energy technologies in the U.S.
Through this RFI, ARPA-E seeks to:
- Identify successful ARPA-E technologies that have established proof of concept and are ready for scaling R&D projects in manufacturability, reliability, etc.
- Identify the companies that propose to lead the next stage of development for these ARPA-E technologies.
- Gauge interest from potential investors and industry partners to support and participate in scale-up/pilot projects.
- Frame the structure and management for potential funding opportunities to support scale-up/pilot projects of ARPA-E technologies with investor and industry participation.
- Facilitate engagement between innovators and partners, specifically to make connections in advance of the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in July 2019.
More detailed information follows on the background of the technology and competitiveness challenges ARPA-E seeks to address, the different groups of stakeholders ARPA-E hopes to engage, and the potential next steps for such a funding opportunity.
Please carefully review the REQUEST FOR INFORMATION DOCUMENT and GUIDELINES below. Please note, in particular, that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.
Responses to this RFI should be submitted in PDF format to the email address ARPA-E-RFI@hq.doe.gov by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on June 20, 2019.