U.S. DOE ARPA-E - Vision OPEN 2024

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) invests in innovative ideas to create the future energy technologies in the U.S.

The energy transition towards net-zero by 2050 demands an unprecedented level of innovation that must be completed in the span of a generation. Global primary energy usage has increased continuously for the past century. This increase is expected to continue with improved standards of living and the rapid expansion of new technologies with high levels of energy-intensive computation, such as artificial intelligence.

Present grid capacity is constrained and cannot accommodate these increasing primary energy needs to reliably deliver power on demand. Meanwhile, all paths through the energy transition require concurrent efforts to decouple the production of essential carbon-based materials from harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Since the Agency’s inception, the ARPA-E OPEN program has served as an opportunity to advance transformative energy breakthroughs in critical areas that fall outside the scope of its technology-focused programs. Vision OPEN challenges the research community to develop groundbreaking technologies to enable a future energy landscape that is dramatically different.

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

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

• ARPA-E expects to make approximately $150 million available for new awards, subject to the availability of appropriated funds. ARPA-E anticipates making 30-50 awards under this FOA. ARPA-E may, at its discretion, issue one, multiple, or no awards.
• Individual awards may vary between $250,000 and $10 million in Federal share.
• A cost share of 20% is requested.
• The period of performance for funding agreements may not exceed 36 months.

• Deadline for Concept Papers (4 pages): July 16, 2024.
• Full Application Submission: Deadline is not known yet.

• EPFL researchers are eligible to apply as subawardee. This is an opportunity to foster new or existing collaborations with partners in the U.S.

• Funder Website: https://arpa-e.energy.gov/
• Link to call: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/#FoaId6cc31453-6805-417c-967c-4df560ba2c88
• Application portal link: ARPA-E eXCHANGE (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Registration.aspx)

• Funder contact details: [email protected]   
• Check the Frequently Asked Questions available at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/faq . For questions that have not already been answered, email [email protected]  (with FOA name and number in subject line)
• Feel free to contact the Research Office