ARPA-E launches $100M Open Solicitation for Transformative Energy Projects --DE-FOA-0001858: OPEN 2018 -- Deadline: 2/12/2018

(U.S. Department of Energy) This FOA marks the fourth OPEN solicitation in the history of ARPA-E. The previous OPEN solicitations were conducted at the inception of the agency in 2009 and again in 2012 and 2015. OPEN 2018 therefore continues the three-year periodic cycle for ARPA-E OPEN solicitations. An OPEN solicitation provides a vitally important mechanism for the support of innovative energy R&D that complements the other primary mechanism, which is through the solicitation of research projects in focused technology programs.

ARPA-E’s focused programs target specific areas of technology that the agency has identified, through extensive interaction with the appropriate external stakeholders, as having significant potential impact on one or more of the Mission Areas described in Section I.A of the FOA. Awards made in response to the solicitation for focused programs support the aggressive technical targets established in that solicitation. Taken in total, ARPA-E’s focused technology programs cover a significant portion of the spectrum of energy technologies and applications.

ARPA-E’s OPEN FOAs ensure that the agency does not miss opportunities to support innovative energy R&D that falls outside of the topics of the focused technology programs or that develop after focused solicitations have closed. OPEN FOAs provide the agency with a remarkable sampling of new and emerging opportunities across the complete spectrum of energy applications and allow the agency to “take the pulse” of the energy R&D community. OPEN FOAs have been and will continue to be the perfect complement to the agency’s focused technology programs – a unique combination of approaches for supporting the most innovative and current energy technology R&D. Indeed, one third of the sixty projects featured in the first two volumes describing ARPA-E impacts stem from OPEN solicitations (https://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=site-page/arpa-e-impact). Potential applicants to this FOA are strongly encouraged to examine the OPEN projects in these two volumes and all of the projects supported in the previous three OPEN solicitations (https://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=site-page/open) for examples of the creative and innovative R&D ARPA-E seeks in its OPEN solicitations.

OPEN 2018 Webpage: https://arpa-e.energy.gov/open2018

DE-FOA-0001858: OPEN 2018

DOCUMENTS

OPEN 2018 FOA - Concept Paper (Last Updated: 12/12/2017 03:33 PM ET)

Concept Paper Submission Deadline: 2/12/2018 5:00 PM ET

CATEGORY 2: TRANSPORTATION
Subcategory A:
Technologies that create fuels that are substitutes for gasoline/diesel, but are not bio based.
Alternative Fuels (Non-Bio)

Subcategory B:
Technologies for improved internal combustion engines and other engine types (e.g., turbines) specifically for transportation applications.
Engines - Transportation

Subcategory C:
Technologies for improved electric motors specifically for transportation applications.
Electric Motors – Transportation

Subcategory D:
Technologies for improved fuel cells specifically for transportation applications.
Fuel Cells - Transportation

Subcategory E:
Advanced Vehicle Designs And Materials
Advanced or alternative vehicle designs and/or key enabling technologies. Examples could include ultralightweight vehicles, advanced components, new vehicle designs and architectures, etc.

Subcategory F:
Technologies for traffic management, transportation behavior, self-driving cars and other advanced transportation management scenarios.Transportation Management

Subcategory G:
Technologies that include advances in semiconductor materials, substrates, circuit topologies, magnetic materials, inductors, dielectric materials, capacitors, transistors, device packaging, etc. or optimizations of electronic systems applied specifically to transportation applications..
Power Electronics - Transportation

Subcategory H:
Technologies for advanced airplanes, human powered vehicles, marine vessels, trains, etc.
Non-Vehicular Transportation

Subcategory I:
Technologies for improved batteries for a wide range of vehicle applications, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and battery electric vehicles (EVs).
Batteries - Transportation

Subcategory J:
Technologies that apply thermal storage, and non-battery electric storage, such as supercapacitors and others specifically for transportation application.
Non-Battery Storage For Transportation

Subcategory K:
Transportation energy technologies that do not fit one of the above categories,

...

CATEGORY 6: BIOENERGY
Subcategory A:
Technologies that improve biomass characteristics, such as yield and sustainability, and decrease cost of production and/or water use.
Biomass Production

Subcategory B:
Technologies that utilize a biological agent in one or more principal step(s) of feedstock conversion to fuels. Biofuel Production - Biological Methods

Subcategory C:
Technologies that do not utilize any biological agent in the conversion of organic feedstock to fuels, such as thermochemical and hybrid approaches or biomimetics.
Biofuel Production - Nonbiological Methods

Subcategory D:
Technologies critical to supply chain development, such as feedstock collection and handling.
Bioenergy Supply Chain

Subcategory E:
Technologies for bioenergy which do not fit in one of the above subcategories. Including but not limited to bioreactors, balance of plant, bioproducts, microbial fuel cells, sensors. READ MORE