ARPA-E Funding Opportunities

This FOA marks the sixth OPEN solicitation in the history of ARPA-E. Since the Agency’s inception in 2009, the three-year periodic cycle of ARPA-E OPEN programs have served as an opportunity to advance transformative energy breakthroughs in critical areas that fall outside the scope of its technology-focused programs. The energy transition towards net-zero by 2050 demands an unprecedented level of innovation. Vision OPEN 2024 challenges the research community to develop groundbreaking technologies to enable a future energy landscape that is dramatically different.

The Vision OPEN 2024 includes three goals that are critical to achieve a sustainable energy and carbon transition with:

1. Greenhouse gas (GHG)-free abundant primary energy;
2. An intermodal energy superhighway that transports diversified forms of primary energy; and
3. A carbon transition that sustainably meets demand for polymers and other materials.

These goals will enable a novel and robust global energy system that responsibly meets the needs and aspirations of future generations. Achieving these three goals by 2050 will necessitate development and deployment of disruptive and ambitious technologies at an unparalleled speed and scale.

The Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) Ready Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) provides a vital mechanism for the support of innovative energy R&D that complements ARPA-E’s primary R&D focus on early-stage transformational energy technologies that still require proof-of-concept.

An enduring challenge to ARPA-E’s mission is that even technologies that achieve substantial technical advancement under ARPA-E support face significant remaining technical and commercial risks 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, indicates that pre-commercial “scaling” projects are critical to establishing that performance and cost parameters can be met in practice for these potentially transformative technologies. These pre-commercial scaling projects aim to translate the performance achieved at bench scale to commercially scalable versions of the technology, integrate the technology with broader systems, provide extended performance data, and validate the manufacturability and reliability of new energy technologies. Success in these scaling projects should enable industry, investors, and partners to justify the substantial commitments of financial resources, personnel, manufacturing facilities, and materials necessary to subsequently deploy the technologies at commercial scale.

The objective of SCALEUP Ready is to support the scaling of high-risk and potentially disruptive new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. This NOFO focuses only on scale-up and pre-pilot projects of promising technologies that ARPA-E has previously funded – following highly competitive selection processes – and for which the scale-up award would substantially build upon innovations achieved under the original ARPA-E award.

This NOFO will remain open until closed or modified. Applications will be accepted any time while this NOFO remains open.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) provides a continuing opportunity for the rapid support of early-stage applied research to explore innovative new concepts with the potential for transformational and disruptive changes in energy technology. Spurring Projects to Advance Energy Research and Knowledge Swiftly (SPARKS) awards are intended to be flexible and may take the form of analyses or exploratory research that provides the agency with useful information for the subsequent development of focused technology programs. SPARKS awards may also support proof-of-concept research to develop a unique technology concept, either in an area not currently supported by the agency or as a potential enhancement to an ongoing focused technology program. Applications must propose concepts that are not covered by open ARPA-E focused FOAs and that do not represent incremental improvements over existing technology.

SPARKS awards are defined as single-phase efforts of durations of 18 months or less with a total project cost of $500,000 or less and will be issued through Grants. ARPA-E expects to make approximately $10 million per fiscal year available for new awards, subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

Updated SF-424A Budget Justification Workbook template uploaded 9/30/24.

The Technologies to Emend and Obviate SYnthetic Nitrogen’s Toll on Emissions (TEOSYNTE) program aims to lower nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from the cultivation of corn and sorghum used for United States ethanol production by 50%. The program will emphasize plant and microbial bio-design strategies that lower the application of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer on corn and sorghum fields while maintaining crop yields and reducing 50% of N2O emissions. Lowering the requirements of synthetic N fertilizer will also lower costs to farmers, as the cost of fertilizer is a significant portion of the operating expenses of a farm. This program will enable technologies to reduce N fertilizer consumption and N2O emissions. These technologies will transform agriculture and lower the N2O contribution to the carbon intensity (CI) of ethanol produced today for light duty vehicles and in the future for sustainable aviation fuel.

Category A: Crop breeding and genetic engineering approaches that alter plant physiology or plant architecture to reduce the requirement of applied N or to prevent N loss to the environment. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, improving crop N incorporation to a lower applied N rate, or employing biological nitrification inhibition to lower the amount of applied N and reduce N2O emissions.

Category B: Microbial approaches to increase the delivery of N to plants. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, microbial engineering or microbiome design of N2-fixing endophytic or free-living diazotrophs or utilizing engineered microorganisms, including fungi, to improve soil N mineralization and/or delivery of N to the plant.

Category C: Systemic approaches to facilitate delivery of N by designed interactions between plant and microbe. Proposed projects in Category C may combine the approaches of Categories A and B or focus specifically on the plant-microbe interface. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, combining plant modifications that improve N uptake with microbial modifications that enhance N delivery, or identifying and enhancing interactions between plant roots and diazotrophic microbes to facilitate the delivery of N.

Category D: Other technologies for coupled N fertilizer reduction and N2O emissions mitigation that do not fit within Categories A, B, and C, if they include elements of plant and/or microbial bio-design.

Concept Paper decisions are available in Exchange as of 9/23/24.

The Technologies to Emend and Obviate SYnthetic Nitrogen’s Toll on Emissions (TEOSYNTE) program aims to lower nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from the cultivation of corn and sorghum used for United States ethanol production by 50%. The program will emphasize plant and microbial bio-design strategies that lower the application of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer on corn and sorghum fields while maintaining crop yields and reducing 50% of N2O emissions. Lowering the requirements of synthetic N fertilizer will also lower costs to farmers, as the cost of fertilizer is a significant portion of the operating expenses of a farm. This program will enable technologies to reduce N fertilizer consumption and N2O emissions. These technologies will transform agriculture and lower the N2O contribution to the carbon intensity (CI) of ethanol produced today for light duty vehicles and in the future for sustainable aviation fuel.

Category A: Crop breeding and genetic engineering approaches that alter plant physiology or plant architecture to reduce the requirement of applied N or to prevent N loss to the environment. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, improving crop N incorporation to a lower applied N rate, or employing biological nitrification inhibition to lower the amount of applied N and reduce N2O emissions.

Category B: Microbial approaches to increase the delivery of N to plants. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, microbial engineering or microbiome design of N2-fixing endophytic or free-living diazotrophs or utilizing engineered microorganisms, including fungi, to improve soil N mineralization and/or delivery of N to the plant.

Category C: Systemic approaches to facilitate delivery of N by designed interactions between plant and microbe. Proposed projects in Category C may combine the approaches of Categories A and B or focus specifically on the plant-microbe interface. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, combining plant modifications that improve N uptake with microbial modifications that enhance N delivery, or identifying and enhancing interactions between plant roots and diazotrophic microbes to facilitate the delivery of N.

Category D: Other technologies for coupled N fertilizer reduction and N2O emissions mitigation that do not fit within Categories A, B, and C, if they include elements of plant and/or microbial bio-design.

Concept Paper decisions are available in Exchange as of 9/23/24.

The Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program will support the research and development of technologies that enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel (UNF) to alleviate the impact of storage in permanent disposal facilities. This program seeks to fund the development of novel technologies that increase the overall capacity factor, power output, and efficiency of particle generation systems (including but not limited to proton, neutron, and/or photon), by reducing beam trip magnitude and duration (referred to as loss of beam). Additional technologies will focus on increasing the throughput of transmutation by developing target materials that maximize transmutation rates and are easily processible to remove the transmuted material.

The program will have three categories:

Category A: Technologies related to the generation and acceleration of particle beams that can initiate transmutation reactions. Development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to predict and recover from beam trip events is also within scope.

Category B: Modelling, designing, and fabricating target materials for the enhancement of transmutation of UNF component elements or isotopes, technologies on incorporation methods for transmutable materials into a target, and technologies for processing the transmuted material for waste packaging or isolation of valuable products

Category C: Integration of the technologies developed in Categories A and B into a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of a transmutation facility, improving the performance of the entire system. Category C teams will also maintain a materials and components database for transmutation facilities, which will include nuclear data sets.

The Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now SBIR/STTR (NEWTON SBIR/STTR) program will support the research and development of technologies that enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel (UNF) to alleviate the impact of storage in permanent disposal facilities. This program seeks to fund the development of novel technologies that increase the overall capacity factor, power output, and efficiency of particle generation systems (including but not limited to proton, neutron, and/or photon), by reducing beam trip magnitude and duration (referred to as loss of beam). Additional technologies will focus on increasing the throughput of transmutation by developing target materials that maximize transmutation rates and are easily processible to remove the transmuted material.

The program will have three categories:

Category A: Technologies related to the generation and acceleration of particle beams that can initiate transmutation reactions. Development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to predict and recover from beam trip events is also within scope.

Category B: Modelling, designing, and fabricating target materials for the enhancement of transmutation of UNF component elements or isotopes, technologies on incorporation methods for transmutable materials into a target, and technologies for processing the transmuted material for waste packaging or isolation of valuable products

Category C: Integration of the technologies developed in Categories A and B into a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of a transmutation facility, improving the performance of the entire system. Category C teams will also maintain a materials and components database for transmutation facilities, which will include nuclear data sets.

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.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is considering issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support the development of quantum computing technologies aimed at accelerating energy innovation. This potential FOA would focus on quantum computing for advances in chemistry and materials that significantly address ARPA-E mission areas, such as improving energy efficiency and reducing energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to a potential future FOA. Any FOA issued in the future would provide specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria. FOA terms would be controlling.

The anticipated goals of the program include developing scalable quantum algorithms for chemistry and materials simulations. The program is expected to culminate in a three-year performance period, resulting in transformative quantum applications with disruptive performance increases compared to classical calculations in metrics such as speed or accuracy. The FOA is expected to require that performance be validated on quantum hardware, either outperforming the classical state-of-the-art or showing a clear path to do so in a scalable manner.

Expertise in the following areas may be useful in responding to the potential FOA:

• Chemistry and Materials Applications: Teams must plan to solve an impactful chemistry or materials problem in the energy space and quantify the relevance to ARPA-E's mission. Therefore, expertise in the specific application in materials science or chemistry may be useful to ensure that the problem is indeed of interest to that field, that solving it would represent a major—not incremental—advance in the field, and that the problem is unlikely to be solved by another approach.
• Classical High-Performance Computing: Experts in classical computational methods used to study chemistry and materials may be useful to ensure that quantum results are compared to and validated against the best available classical methods.
• Quantum Algorithms and Software Engineering: Experts in the design of quantum algorithms, specifically those relevant to chemistry and materials science, may be useful to address the core goals of the potential FOA.
• Quantum Compilation, Embedding, and Error-Correction: Specialists in optimizing circuits and error-correction protocols may be useful to optimize higher-level algorithms for maximum performance on the specific quantum hardware.
• Quantum Hardware: It may be useful to include experts in the specific qubits and architecture that will be used to solve the problem and the likely state of hardware by the end of the period of performance.

Successful teams are likely to include experts from all identified areas of expertise in order to be able to design an approach that leverages quantum computing hardware to solve a practical problem related to ARPA-E’s mission in energy. Although a single person may be able to fill more than one of these expert roles, a complete set of experts is unlikely to exist within any single organization. We anticipate effective teaming will be critical for project success.

As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in August 2024. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically until the close of the Full Application period to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.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.

By submitting a response to this Notice, 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 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 to other email addresses or by 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 potential FOA.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is considering issuing a funding opportunity to support the development of high performance insulated glass units (IGUs). The purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to a potential funding opportunity. Any funding opportunity issued in the future would provide specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria. Funding opportunity terms would be controlling.

The anticipated three-year program is expected to culminate in highly insulating, low-cost, retrofittable IGUs that can be integrated into a sash and frame. Although the sash and frame are important components of the window, they are out of the scope of this anticipated program. Vacuum insulated glazings and aerogel-based IGUs are two possible technologies that could meet the goals of the potential program, though other innovative solutions meeting the program targets would be considered. ARPA-E anticipates the teams will execute analytical, computational, design, and prototype efforts to reduce key risks associated with their technology during the first half of the performance period. Validation of thermal performance and durability would occur at the end of this period. The second half of the performance period would focus on further development of the manufacturing processes and validating their scalability for mass manufacture.

As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

ARPA-E strongly encourages the formation of interdisciplinary teams to overcome technology barriers to develop high performance IGUs suitable for the retrofit market that are cost-competitive with double-pane low-emissivity IGUs with argon fill. Successful teams are likely to incorporate expertise in relevant areas such as materials, simulation, thermal analysis, manufacturing, industrial engineering, technoeconomic analysis, reliability, chemistry, and other fields. The technical designs and processes developed by the teams will be evaluated by industrial equipment designers to ensure viable paths to commercialization. Thermal, optical, and durability testing will be performed by third-party certifiers.

The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE, ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in September 2024. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically until the close of the Full Application period to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following form: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx.

Required information includes Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.

By submitting a response to this notice, 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 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 to other email addresses or by 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 list and participation in the list has no bearing whatsoever on the evaluation of applications submitted to the potential funding opportunity.

This notice does not constitute a funding opportunity. No funding opportunity exists at this time. Applicants must refer to the funding opportunity, expected to be issued by November 2024, for instructions on applying and for the terms and conditions of funding.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) has issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to challenge the research community to develop groundbreaking technologies that could create a future energy landscape dramatically different from the one surrounding us today. More specifically, the Vision includes three goals that are critical to achieving a sustainable energy and carbon transition with: 1) Abundant greenhouse gas (GHG)-free primary energy; 2) An intermodal energy superhighway that transports diversified forms of primary energy, and 3) A carbon transition that sustainably meets the demand for polymers and other materials. Together, these goals will enable a novel and robust global energy system that meets the needs of future generations.

As described in more detail below, the purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to Vision OPEN 2024. The FOA provides specific program goals, topics and subtopics, and selection criteria. FOA terms are controlling. The full Vision OPEN 2024 FOA can be found on ARPA-E eXCHANGE.

ARPA-E is compiling a Teaming Partner List for Vision OPEN 2024 as an optional tool that potential applicants may choose to utilize to facilitate the formation of new project teams and identify potential 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 identifies partners’ capabilities as well as their areas of interest, understanding that expertise and experience in one field can often be applied successfully to a new field.

ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. 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.

The Vision OPEN 2024 Teaming Partner List is available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in May 2024. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically until the close of the Full Application period to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes the following: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and a description of Background, Interest, and Capabilities. In the Background, Interest, and Capabilities, please specify the Vision OPEN 2024 Goal(s), Topic(s), and Subtopic(s) that the organization’s expertise applies to.

By submitting a response to this Notice, 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 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 to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered. This list is completely voluntarily to participate in and utilize. 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 potential FOA.

This Notice does not constitute a FOA. Applicants must refer to the Vision OPEN 2024 FOA, issued on May 22, 2024, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding. Questions about the FOA should be directed to ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is considering issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support development of plant and/or microbial technologies that will allow for a 50% reduction in nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions by reducing the application of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer. The purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to a potential FOA. The FOA will provide specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria. The FOA terms are controlling.

In the United States, agriculture contributes to 11.2% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually. N₂O is the main GHG produced by this sector, and it is a potent GHG with 273 times the greenhouse potential of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas, accounting for 5.6% of total U.S. GHG emissions. In agricultural systems, N₂O originates from the conversion of applied N fertilizer by soil microorganisms. The high emissions of N₂O from agricultural soils contributes to the overapplication of N fertilizer, a common practice to achieve high crop productivity and yield. This problem is more acute in the cultivation of ethanol bioenergy crops (e.g., corn, sorghum), which accounts for 52% of all U.S. fertilizer demand­. For the purposes of this Teaming Partner List, the overarching goal of ARPA-E’s potential program would be to reduce N₂O emissions in the agricultural sector by 50% by 2030, based on the emissions level in 2005. This goal would be achieved by developing plant and/or microbial technologies that collectively allow for a reduction of N inputs without compromising yield, saving $6.4 billion in operational costs for U.S. farmers. Additionally, technologies arising from this program would potentially reduce the carbon intensity score of corn and sorghum-derived biofuels to help achieve the U.S. target of producing 35 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2050. This program would support ARPA-E statutory goals by: improving energy security through reduction of imports of foreign synthetic N fertilizer; reducing agriculturally derived N₂O and CO₂ emissions that contribute 37 million to 78 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent; and improving energy efficiency by lowering carbon intensity for ethanol and ethanol-derived SAFs by 14-23%.

Examples of technologies specifically of interest in the application to corn and/or sorghum, either as standalone solutions or in combination, include but are not limited to the following:

• Crop breeding and plant genetic engineering approaches to reduce the requirement of applied N or to prevent N loss to the environment;
• Microbial approaches to increase the delivery of N to plants;
• Systemic approaches to facilitate delivery of N by designed interactions between plant and microbes; and
• Other additional technologies to couple N fertilizer reduction and N₂O emissions mitigation by combining elements of plant and/or microbial bio-design.

To validate that proposed technologies achieve the overarching goal of the potential program, ARPA-E anticipates requiring field testing and in-field N₂O measurement as part of technology development.

ARPA-E held a workshop on this topic in November 2023. Information on this workshop can be found at https://arpa-e.energy.gov/events/new-nitrogen-cycle-bioenergy-crop-production-workshop.

Expertise in the following non-exhaustive list of technical areas may be useful in responding to the potential FOA:

• Agronomy
• Metabolic engineering
• Plant breeding
• Plant biology
• Plant and microbial bioinformatics
• Plant physiology
• Microbiology
• N₂O measurement
• Metagenomics

As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. 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.

The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams and will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in June 2024. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically until the close of the Full Application period to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.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.

By submitting a response to this Notice, 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 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 to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered. This list is completely voluntarily to participate in and utilize. 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 potential FOA.

This Notice does not constitute a FOA. Applicants must refer to the TEOSYNTE and TEOSYNTE SBIR/STTR FOAs, issued on July 11, 2024, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is considering issuing a Program Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that would support used nuclear fuel (UNF) transmutation. Transmutation of UNF would promote nuclear energy by addressing significant challenges associated with the permanent disposal of UNF arising from current and future nuclear reactors. Transmutation research and development will focus on reducing the storage impact of UNF components, specifically minor actinides, intermediate-lived fission products, and long-lived fission products fated for a permanent geological repository.

As described in more detail below, the purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to a potential future FOA. Any FOA issued in the future would provide specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria. FOA terms would be controlling.

For purposes of this Teaming Partner List, overall goals for the potential program include:

• 30-year timeline to transmute key minor actinides, medium-lived fission products, and long-lived fission products in the U.S. UNF stockpile
• ≥ 99% reduction in storage time for UNF
• ≥ 60% reduction in decay heat in watts per metric ton of uranium of UNF
• ≥ 90% reduction in activity of UNF

The potential FOA would consider the following technical areas:

1. Resilient components of transmutation systems. This technology area includes specific components that improve the power, current, reliability, and efficiency, and reduce the operating power of particle beam production.
2. Increased transmutation throughput. This technology area includes methods and processes to incorporate UNF into transmutation systems that maximize transmutation of components into more manageable isotopes. Process chemistry for liquid or molten salt targets and spallation targets for accelerator-driven systems are also included in this area.
3. Capability teams. ARPA-E is seeking capability teams for testing component integration and system resiliency to support the assessment of technologies in the program. Additionally, capability teams will be tasked with the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) algorithms to apply to accelerator facilities and to reduce the magnitude and duration of beam trips. Capability teams will create and maintain a materials database and perform techno-economic analyses on transmutation systems concepts.

Other solutions that do not clearly fall under one of the previous categories will be considered. However, a compelling case must be made that the technology will deliver significant improvements to the enhanced throughput of transmutation.

Expertise in the following areas may be useful in responding to the potential FOA:

• Radio frequency generation
• Laser systems
• Accelerators
• Cryogenics
• Material coatings technologies
• Power electronics
• AI/ML
• Nuclear chemistry
• Process chemistry
• Separations
• Radiological monitoring
• Materials analysis

As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. 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.

The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically until the close of the Full Application period to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.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.

By submitting a response to this Notice, 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 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 to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered. This list is completely voluntary to participate in and utilize. 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 potential FOA.

This Notice does not constitute a FOA. Applicants must refer to the NEWTON and NEWTON SBIR/STTR FOAs, issued on July 16, 2024, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.