ARPA-E Funding Certainty Matters

I


nnovation has been at the center of America’s economic competitiveness for 


decades


.


 In the energy sector, federal


 research and development (R&D) programs have served as a foundation on which the private sector has built an impressive track record of innovation, creating jobs, lowering costs and enhancing energy security. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-


E) 


was created to 


ensure


 the United States 


maintains


 


a competitive 


edge


 in developing emerging energy technologies.

 

Successful

 

ARPA-E has already demonstrated a great deal of early success. 


Since it was first funded in 2009


, 136


 of 


over


 


340


 completed projects supported by ARPA-E have attracted over 


$2.6


 billion in private sector follow-on funding


,


 


published 


1,634 peer-reviewed journal articles


, been issued 


248 patents


, and


 


71


 have 


formed


 new companies


.


 The American Energy Innovation Council, among others, has argued since 2010 that ARPA-E’s unique approach sets it apart from the rest of the national energy R&D enterprise. 

 

DARPA Model

 

ARPA-E was m


odeled after the successful Defense 


Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)


,


 which


 itself


 was 


c


reated in 1958 as a response to the Soviet Union’s launch of the world’s first satellite


. DARPA


 went on to develop 


GPS and the 


internet


. 


In 2007, the National Academ


y of Science


s


 


published its 


Rising Above the Gathering Storm


 report, which found that the United States was


 again


 at risk of falling behind other nations in science and technology. One of its key recommendations was to create an organization like DARPA in the Department of Energy to overcome the high-risk technological barriers to the development of advanced energy 


technologies. 


In 2007, President Bush signed the AMERICA COMPETES Act into law, 


establishing


 ARPA-E and set


ting


 a goal of doubling investments


 in core science agencies


.


 

 

America’s success in these markets will depend on whether we empower it, or allow continued uncertainty to undermine it. 

Strong Leaders

 

ARPA-


E


 has focused on identifying off-roadmap


 


research that isn’t being pursued anywhere else. Like DARPA, ARPA-E recruits top talent from across the energy space to identify and utilize unique approaches to solve difficult problems. These program directors utilize a workshop process to refine the scope of the programs they pursue. Like a “shark tank” for identifying important research, program directors have to convince not just the agency, but also a multi-disciplinary team of scientists that they’ve identified a problem worth solving. Once they’ve settled on a program, they fund a portfolio of projects, increasing the chance of success by creating more shots on goal instead of focusing on a predetermined set of technologies that may not end up working.


 


Empowering program directors in this way


?


while requiring them to demonstrate that a topic is worth exploring


?


ensures that instead of a top-down, centrally planned research program, ARPA-E has the flexibility to pursue research targets of opportunity that would be more difficult under traditional institutional arrangements. This approach has been key to ARPA-E’s early success.

 

Early Stage Research

 

ARPA-E focuses on projects that are too early in their development to attract private sector funding. As the recent National Academy of Sciences Assessment on ARPA-E found, ARPA-E is funding projects that 


no one else is funding. This isn’t surprising, given the early stage and high-risk nature of the projects they’re pursuing. ARPA-E has also demonstrated an ability to accelerate the development of early stage projec


ts. A Government Accountability 


Office?



report



?found


 that most ARPA-E funded projects were either at or before proof of concept stages. Without ARPA-E’s support, they would have either terminated their projects, or taken at least a decade to commercialize them.

 

Management Style

 

ARPA-E’s management toolkit includes


 the use of techno-economi


c analysis, which helps


 innovators identify and anticipate commercialization challenges such as market shifts or manufacturing bottlenecks that could derail their work. Identifying these challenges early in a technology’s development helps to avoid the “valley of death”


?


delays or cost overruns that


 might otherwise


 cause a project to fail. This metric-driven process also means that when projects are underperforming and need to be terminated, these decisions can be made with confidence, ensuring responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.?

 

Funding 


Certainty Matters

 

Eliminating ARPA-E would have damaging long-term consequences. Even if funding levels are maintained, ongoing questions about the agency’s future will undermine its success. With stable support, ARPA-E will be able to continue attracting top talent and maintain its flexible approach to funding transformative, off-roadmap research. To provide that certainty, policymakers should appropriate?funding?more commensurate with its potential impact and reauthorize ARPA-E long term. To bolster U.S. technology leadership, Congress set a goal of doubling science funding, including through ARPA-E, by 2020 when it reauthorized the AMERICA COMPETES Act in 2010. Congress reaffirmed this commitment when it passed the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA) in 2017. We are far short of this goal and risk falling behind as other nations step up their research investments to compete in emerging billion-dollar technology markets.  

ARPA-E’s unique approach fills an important gap in the energy technology development cycle. America’s success in these markets will depend on whether we empower it, or allow continued uncertainty to undermine it.