DOE: Advanced Manufacturing Projects for Emerging Research Exploration (DE-FOA-0000-1465)

To enhance the responsiveness of the roadmap approach, EERE is issuing Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) within its existing Offices and programs to support innovative technologies and solutions that could help meet existing goals but are not represented in a significant way in the Offices' existing Multi-Year Program Plans (MYPPs) or current portfolios. These FOAs and resulting projects will allow EERE to assess new technologies for their potential to be “on ramped” to future MYPPs, and encourage contributions from new partners. Successful projects will reduce the risk associated with potential breakthrough approaches and technologies so that they can be viable candidates for inclusion in future program roadmaps.

This funding opportunity addresses three topic areas from the Advanced Manufacturing Office. Each topic area consists of multiple subtopics. DOE intends to fund the applications with the greatest chance of helping achieve the goals and mission of EERE. EERE may award an entire application or any part of an application at a funding level that will be negotiated with the applicant. The topic areas are:

Topic Area 1: Advanced Materials. The Advanced Materials Topic Area focuses on advances in innovative materials and the devices and systems that incorporate them for energy-saving opportunities and improved functionality.

Topic Area 2: Advanced Processes. The Advanced Processes Topic Area focuses on advancing transformational next-generation processes and technologies not bound by limitations of current processes.

Topic Area 3: Modeling and Analysis Tools for Materials and Manufacturing. The Modeling and Analysis Tools for Materials and Manufacturing Topic Area focuses on optimization of energy and materials usage across the lifecycle of manufactured products through the use of information technology.

The Applicants’ technologies may be at different levels of maturity; proposed funding levels and project durations should be commensurate with the work scope necessary to advance the technology to the proposed readiness level. Applications to this FOA will be accepted in the following categories:

Tier 1 (Concept Definition, expected TRL 2-3): DOE Federal Funding Share Range of $250,000 - $1,000,000. The project would conduct early stage research needed to explore and define technical concepts. Activities would focus on thoroughly understanding and describing the capabilities of the technology. Research may include laboratory scale experiments, exploration of fundamental scientific concepts associated with the technology, data generation and analysis, and other exploratory methods.

Tier 2 (Proof of Concept, expected TRL 3-5): DOE Federal Funding Share Range of $750,000 - $2,500,000. The project would conduct research, development and testing of prototype technology or processes. Work may include analytical studies and laboratory studies to physically validate analytical predictions of separate elements of the technology, predictive modeling or simulation of performance, engineering studies to assess scale-up, and testing of concept feasibility at the prototype or bench scale.

Please click "FOA FAQs" under the "FOA Documents" heading below for Questions and Answers specific to this FOA.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: The Exchange system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applications. In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). 

Informational Webinar: The Informational Webinar mentioned in the FOA was held on January 5, 2017 at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Attendance was not mandatory and will not positively or negatively impact the overall review of any Applicant submissions. Standard application questions regarding the EERE Office and FOA procedures were discussed. No new information was presented during the webinar and EERE did not answer any attendee questions during the webinar.

A copy of the Webinar Slides and Webinar Transcript are available to download in the “DOCUMENTS” section below.

Please click or copy and paste this link in your browser to register to access the audio recording of this webinar: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/1644335412315086084