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.