An Assessment of ARPA-E Summary (2017) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Summary
Summary
Pages 1-14
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
The ad hoc committee convened to conduct this assessment relied on quantitative and qualitative analyses of data on ARPA-E's creation of technology-focused funding programs, its decisionmaking processes for granting awards, its management of projects and awardees, the patenting and publishing activities of awardees, and further investments made in awardee projects following ARPA-E funding. There are clear indicators that ARPA-E is making progress toward achieving its statutory mission and goals, and it cannot reasonably be expected to have completely fulfilled those goals given so few years of operation and the size of its budget.
|
From page 2... ...
accelerating transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty." 2 The committee's operational assessment considers how ARPA-E is organized, how it selects projects to support, how it partners with performers to manage those projects, how it actively manages projects, and what nontechnical support it provides to projects. The technical assessment outlines how ARPA-E, through its project selection and management, has made progress toward producing commercial products with the potential to transform the energy sector.
|
From page 3... ...
, case studies of completed awards, consultations with current and former ARPA-E personnel, and consultations with individuals from other programs and offices at DOE. The development of new or transformative energy technologies from initial discovery to broad market deployment typically takes several decades.
|
From page 4... ...
This process emphasizes technical comments from internal and external reviewers; applicants' responses to those comments; and a holistic assessment of funding recommendations that considers the technical content of the applications, the potential for impact on achieving agency goals should projects be successful, and nontechnical factors. The process addresses such important issues as portfolio balance, both across technical categories and within the funded program, with an eye to ensuring sufficiently varied approaches.
|
From page 5... ...
Finding 3-9: ARPA-E program directors actively manage projects through technical research guidance and feedback, regular and frequent assessments of progress made toward stated technical milestones, and revision of milestones in response to new findings and research discoveries. Throughout a program's life cycle -- from review of applications, through award negotiations, to completion of individual projects -- program directors engage in active project management.
|
From page 6... ...
These two observations speak simultaneously to the need to consider ARPA-E's impact in context and over a duration that is well aligned with the agency's mission and the reality of the market dynamics of energy technologies, and to the need to gather, systematically, more and better data that can be used to discern and monitor mechanisms that may lead to a better understanding of how a technology's full impact is achieved over time. Reviewing the findings presented above, together with all the findings and evidence gathered and presented for this report, it is evident that assessing ARPA-E at this time is a difficult task.
|
From page 7... ...
The committee recommends that ARPA-E strive to preserve this management approach that gives its program directors wide authority to develop new focused technology programs with potential to be transformative and enables them to manage projects actively through technical research guidance and feedback, regular and frequent assessments of progress toward stated milestones, and revision of milestones in response to new findings and research discoveries. This management approach is a defining organizational feature that can contribute to the agency's ability to achieve its statutory mission and goals, and helps to distinguish ARPA-E from other public funding initiatives for energy R&D.
|
From page 8... ...
The agency could link data from its robust internal database of project-level metrics to program-level goals, including indicators of commercial and noncommercial outcomes over the short and long terms; connect those goals to standard, observable innovation metrics; and then translate those metrics into progress toward achieving the agency-level mission and goals. Such a framework would need to include a system for tracking performers postfunding for at least 10 years, and very likely longer, to capture technologies that are transferred in arms-length transactions along with other ways of observing technology deployment.
|
From page 9... ...
Finding 4-4 describes the importance for ARPA-E of seeking high-risk, potentially transformative technologies and overlooked, "off-roadmap" opportunities pursued by neither private firms nor other funding agencies, including other programs and offices within DOE, as a way to position itself to accomplish its mission. ARPA-E's underlying organizational features include encouraging its program directors to seek potentially high-impact projects and recognizing that many of its projects will produce only valuable knowledge, including knowledge of research pathways that should not be pursued further, instead of commercialized products.
|
From page 10... ...
Finding 3-6 supports the positive influence those practices have had on other offices within DOE. To cite a direct example, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has incorporated several elements of ARPA-E's approach into the management of its programs, including use of a workshop to define a program, use of concept papers to screen funding applicants, and early termination of underperforming projects.
|
From page 11... ...
Finding 3-9: ARPA-E program directors actively manage projects through technical research guidance and feedback, regular and frequent assessments of progress made toward stated technical milestones, and revision of milestones in response to new findings and research discoveries. (Continued)
|
From page 12... ...
Finding 4-3: While 6 years is not long enough to produce observable evidence of widespread deployment of funded technologies, there are clear indications that ARPA-E is making progress toward its statutory mission and goals. Finding 4-4: One of ARPA-E's strengths is its focus on funding high-risk, potentially transformative technologies and overlooked, "off-roadmap" opportunities pursued by neither private firms nor other funding agencies, including other programs and offices within DOE.
|
From page 13... ...
Recommendation 3-1: ARPA-E should preserve its distinctive and flexible management approach that empowers program directors and stresses active project management. Recommendation 3-2: ARPA-E should continue to hire exceptional program directors and empower them to create programs and manage projects.
|
From page 14... ...
Recommendation 4-3: ARPA-E should continue to use processes designed to identify and support unexplored opportunities that hold promise for resulting in transformational technological advances. Recommendation 4-4: ARPA-E should be careful not to misinterpret or extend its interpretation of its original authorizing statute, whose careful language is appropriate to the agency's mission and goals.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.