$100 Million In DOE ARPA-E Grants

The Department of Energy announced last week that $100 million in funding for "transformational energy research projects" is available through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program. The announcement marks the second round of ARPA-E project grants. In late October, $151 million was awarded to 37 high-risk projects, each with the potential to lead to a new clean energy industrial revolution, according to DOE (C&EN, Nov. 2, page 9). In this round, DOE is seeking projects in three areas: biological approaches to create liquid fuels, advanced technologies that capture carbon from coal-fired power plants, and a new generation of high-density, low-cost batteries for electric vehicles. Concept papers are due on Jan. 15, DOE says. Competition could be stiff on the basis that some 3,700 papers were submitted during the first round of grants. Funding for that round was between $4 million and $10 million per project. The department also announced last week the creation of a new ARPA-E two-year fellowship program in which fellows will support ARPA-E program managers while exploring research areas for future funding opportunities. For more information, go to arpa-e.energy.gov.