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The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) was established in 2009 to address barriers to the development of transformational science and technology solutions for energy and environmental challenges, with goals of increasing U.S. energy and economic security and ensuring U.S. leadership in advanced energy technologies. As requested in the Energy Act of 2020, this study will evaluate how well ARPA-E is achieving its mission and goals by analyzing its operations and assessing the impacts of its programs. This will be the second National Academies review of ARPA-E, following the first review that was published in 2017.
Description
Established in 2009, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) has the statutory mission of addressing barriers to the development of transformational science and technology solutions for energy and environmental challenges. ARPA-E’s statutory goals, expanded in the Energy Act of 2020, are to increase U.S. energy and economic security and ensure U.S. leadership in advanced energy technology deployment by developing technologies that reduce energy imports and emissions, increase energy efficiency, improve the management and disposal of radioactive wastes and spent nuclear fuel, and enhance the resilience, reliability, and security of energy infrastructure.
The 2020 amendments of ARPA-E’s statutory authority included direction for the National Academy of Sciences (hereafter referred to as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [NASEM]) to conduct an evaluation of how well ARPA-E is achieving its mission and goals. NASEM will establish an ad hoc committee (“committee”) for this purpose, with funding provided by ARPA-E. This will be the second NASEM review of ARPA-E; the first one was published in 2017.
The committee will evaluate the effectiveness of ARPA-E’s structure and operations in achieving its mission and goals, and conduct a retrospective and technical assessment to analyze the accomplishments and/or impacts of ARPA-E programs to date and to consider future opportunities.
Specifically, to the extent that data are available, the committee will identify and evaluate:
- ARPA-E’s methods and procedures to develop new programs and actively manage its portfolio of activities, including: recruiting and hiring procedures to attract and retain qualified key personnel; the practice of active program management with term-limited staff; any modifications to procedures made in response to the 2017 NASEM evaluation of ARPA-E.
- The benefits attributable to ARPA-E’s portfolio, including broader impacts on the research and development community in the relevant fields, downstream users of funded technologies, and DOE’s research, development, and demonstration efforts.
- ARPA-E’s evaluation methods to assess its portfolio of activities, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches, which will include ARPA-E’s identification of high-risk, transformational technologies, unexplored opportunities, and “whitespaces” for new programs, as well as their measurements of short- and long-term programmatic impacts.
- The alignment of ARPA-E’s program portfolio and partnerships with the revised goals for the agency as laid out in the Energy Act of 2020.
- The effectiveness of the SCALEUP program at accelerating the impact of ARPA-E–funded technologies from prototype to scalable and deployable versions.
- Energy-related science and technology areas that ARPA-E has not yet addressed, and those that ARPA-E has previously covered and should consider revisiting.
- How ARPA-E’s goals and portfolio fit into the DOE’s larger mission objectives.
Per the legislative direction for this review, it may include “a recommendation of whether ARPA-E should be continued or terminated; and …a description of lessons learned from operations of ARPA-E, and the manner in which those lessons may apply to the operation of other programs in the Department.” The committee will also consider if there are specific lessons or legal authorities to be added from other federal agencies supporting advanced research projects.
The committee will issue a report detailing its findings, conclusions, and recommendations, including suggestions for improvements in ARPA-E’s mission, goals, structure, operations, procedures, and portfolio of work; lessons learned from the operation of ARPA-E that may apply to other ARPA programs; and factors that Congress and DOE leadership should take into consideration in guiding the future of ARPA-E, including statutory changes that would enhance the effectiveness of ARPA-E to achieve its statutory goals.
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Conflict of Interest Disclosure
The conflict of interest policy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (http://www.nationalacademies.org/coi) prohibits the appointment of an individual to a committee authoring a Consensus Study Report if the individual has a conflict of interest that is relevant to the task to be performed. An exception to this prohibition is permitted if the National Academies determines that the conflict is unavoidable and the conflict is publicly disclosed. A determination of a conflict of interest for an individual is not an assessment of that individual's actual behavior or character or ability to act objectively despite the conflicting interest.
Dr. Héctor Abruña has a conflict of interest in relation to his service on the Committee on Evaluating ARPA-E’s Mission and Goals because of his position as Senior Technical Partner with GVP Climate, LLP, which invests in early-stage clean energy technologies, some of which have received ARPA-E funding.
The National Academies has concluded that the committee must include a member with current experience advancing technologies from an academic research laboratory to a start-up company, including an understanding of technology development milestones required to attract investments. As described in his biographical summary, Dr. Abruña is a Senior Technical Partner with GVP Climate LLP, providing technical advice to inform investments in early-stage clean energy technologies similar to those funded by ARPA-E. Additionally, research initiated in Dr. Abruña’s laboratory has resulted in the formation of three start-up companies in technology areas that ARPA-E funds: Factorial Energy, Ecoelectro, and Conamix. As a result of this experience, Dr. Abruña possesses insights into technology development and commercialization related to the committee’s assessment of the effectiveness of ARPA-E’s SCALEUP program at accelerating technologies from prototype to deployable versions. Furthermore, his deep technical expertise in batteries, fuel cells, and molecular electronics will be critical to the committee’s evaluation of the impacts of ARPA-E-funded technologies on the broader research community and its identification of energy-related science and technology areas that ARPA-E has not yet addressed.
The National Academies has determined that the experience and expertise of Dr. Abruña is needed for the committee to accomplish the task for which it has been established. The National Academies could not find another available individual with the equivalent expertise and breadth of experience who does not have a conflict of interest. Therefore, the National Academies has concluded that the conflict is unavoidable.
The National Academies believes that Dr. Abruña can serve effectively as a member of the committee, and the committee can produce an objective report, taking into account the composition of the committee, the work to be performed, and the procedures to be followed in completing the study.
Dr. Karma Sawyer has a conflict of interest in relation to her service on the Committee on Evaluating ARPA-E’s Mission and Goals because of her position as Director of the Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where she oversees employees who have current ARPA-E funding.
The National Academies has concluded that the committee must include a member with deep experience managing large research portfolios combined with extensive operational experience at ARPA-E and the Department of Energy (DOE) at large. As described in her biographical summary, Dr. Sawyer has technical expertise in many clean energy technologies that ARPA-E funds, including carbon capture, thermal energy storage, mass/heat transfer, building energy efficiency, and building-grid integration. In addition, Dr. Sawyer has held positions at both ARPA-E and the DOE’s Building Technologies Office, and this experience and knowledge of the DOE’s organizational structure and strategic objectives will be critical for the committee’s evaluation of how ARPA-E fits into the DOE ecosystem. Dr. Sawyer’s unique combination of technical expertise and experience managing large research portfolios makes Dr. Sawyer an invaluable addition to the committee, given its task to analyze ARPA-E’s procedures for developing research programs, evaluate the impacts of ARPA-E-funded technologies, and identify potential future research areas for funding.
The National Academies has determined that the experience and expertise of Dr. Sawyer is needed for the committee to accomplish the task for which it has been established. The National Academies could not find another available individual with the equivalent expertise and breadth of experience who does not have a conflict of interest. Therefore, the National Academies has concluded that the conflict is unavoidable.
The National Academies believes that Dr. Sawyer can serve effectively as a member of the committee, and the committee can produce an objective report, taking into account the composition of the committee, the work to be performed, and the procedures to be followed in completing the study.
Sponsors
Department of Energy
Staff
Catherine Wise
Lead
Gail Cohen
K. John Holmes
Brent Heard
David Dierksheide
Kaia Russell