Evaluation of ARPA-E’s Mission and Goals Meeting 2

A committee of experts will meet on 7-8 October 2024 as part of a National Academies’ study to evaluate ARPA-E’s mission and goals.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) was established in 2009 to address barriers to the development of transformational science and technology solutions for energy and environmental challenges, with goals of increasing U.S. energy and economic security and ensuring U.S. leadership in advanced energy technologies.

As requested in the Energy Act of 2020, this study will evaluate how well ARPA-E is achieving its mission and goals by analyzing its operations and assessing the impacts of its programs. This will be the second National Academies review of ARPA-E, following the first review that was published in 2017.

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.

In the November 2024 meeting, the committee will hear in open session from the study sponsor and Congressional staff. In closed session, the committee will discuss its approach to the task statement.

Please visit the National Academies’ Evaluation of ARPA-E’s Mission and Goals Meeting #2 event page for more information.