SEEDING CRITICAL ADVANCES FOR LEADING ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES WITH UNTAPPED POTENTIAL 2019 | DE FOA 0002166

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - ARPA-E SCALEUP 2019 (DE-FOA-0002166)

What is the SCALEUP program?

SCALEUP stands for "Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy Technologies with Untapped Potential." It is a funding opportunity run by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to advance promising ARPA-E-supported energy technologies beyond early proof-of-concept and toward a stage where they can realistically attract private investment and move toward commercialization.

Who runs SCALEUP, and what is ARPA-E?

SCALEUP is administered by ARPA-E, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy. ARPA-E was created under the America COMPETES Act to strengthen U.S. economic and energy security by supporting energy technologies that can reduce reliance on foreign energy imports, reduce energy-related emissions (including greenhouse gases), and improve energy efficiency across the economy, while helping the United States remain a leader in advanced energy technology development and deployment.

What makes SCALEUP different from typical ARPA-E awards?

Traditional ARPA-E projects tend to focus on high-risk, potentially transformational research and early demonstrations that establish new technical possibilities. SCALEUP is distinct because it targets the "middle ground" between bench-scale success and a commercially credible technology by funding scale-up and pre-pilot work such as integration, extended testing, reliability validation, and manufacturability efforts.

What problem is SCALEUP trying to solve?

SCALEUP addresses the risk that successful ARPA-E projects can become "stranded" after initial funding ends. Even when an early project demonstrates strong technical results, the technology may still be too risky for private investors or industry to support without additional proof in realistic conditions, longer-duration performance data, and evidence that the technology can be manufactured at competitive cost and meaningful scale.

What kinds of activities does SCALEUP funding support?

Based on the program description, SCALEUP supports pre-commercial scale-up efforts including scaling the technology, integrating it into larger systems, extended testing, generating longer-duration performance and reliability data, and manufacturability work that helps demonstrate a path to low-cost manufacturing and reduced commercialization risk.

What is the goal of SCALEUP in terms of commercialization?

The goal is to produce evidence that unlocks serious private-sector commitments, such as follow-on capital, engineering resources, manufacturing partnerships, and pilot-scale facilities. SCALEUP aims to move technologies closer to commercialization by reducing both technical and market-adoption risks.

Why does the FOA emphasize scaling and manufacturability?

ARPA-E often funds technologies that may initially appear more expensive or less proven than incumbent solutions but could become dramatically better if key technical hurdles are solved and a credible pathway to low-cost manufacturing is demonstrated. SCALEUP focuses on the expensive and underfunded work that helps validate performance at more realistic scales and conditions, and that shows whether a technology can be built competitively at scale.

How does SCALEUP relate to U.S. competitiveness?

The opportunity frames scale-up as a national competitiveness issue. If U.S.-funded innovations stall before market readiness, the intellectual property and know-how developed with taxpayer support may be more likely to be developed further overseas. SCALEUP is presented as a way to keep U.S. innovators and industry positioned to lead in scaling, manufacturing, and deployment in global energy markets.

What is the official Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) number for this opportunity?

The opportunity was issued as Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0002166.

What types of funding instruments are used under this FOA?

The FOA lists cooperative agreements and grants as the funding instruments.

What is the activity category and CFDA number associated with SCALEUP?

The activity category is research and development in science and technology, and the CFDA number is 81.135.

What is the award ceiling under this opportunity?

The award ceiling listed in the description is $20,000,000.

How many awards were expected?

The FOA description indicates an expectation of around 8 awards, reflecting the higher costs of scale-up, integration, and pre-pilot demonstrations compared to typical early-stage awards.

How does SCALEUP funding compare to typical ARPA-E project sizes?

The description notes that a typical ARPA-E project averages about $2.5 million over three years. SCALEUP anticipates significantly larger awards (up to the stated ceiling) because scale-up and pre-pilot work is more resource-intensive.

What were the key application deadlines mentioned?

The timeline used a two-step submission structure. A preliminary application (and an optional small business grant submission) was due February 14, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Full applications were due July 20, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Was there a two-step application process?

Yes. The opportunity described a two-step submission structure involving a preliminary application followed by a full application at a later date.

How were applications required to be submitted?

Applications were required to be submitted through ARPA-E's eXCHANGE system. The FOA stated that submissions sent through other channels were not to be reviewed.

What legal and regulatory rules govern awards under this FOA?

The FOA was issued under ARPA-E's authorizing statute (42 U.S.C. 16538). Awards are governed by the federal financial assistance rules in 2 C.F.R. Part 200 (as amended) and 2 C.F.R. Part 910.

Is SCALEUP intended for basic research proposals?

No. The opportunity positions SCALEUP as distinct from basic research; applicants with basic research projects were pointed toward the DOE Office of Science.

Is SCALEUP intended for incremental improvements to established technologies?

The FOA description suggests that more incremental, roadmap-driven improvements to established technologies may be a better fit for DOE applied energy offices such as EERE, Fossil Energy, Nuclear Energy, or Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, rather than SCALEUP.

What stage of technology development does SCALEUP target?

SCALEUP targets the period after early proof-of-concept success but before a technology is commercially credible. It is aimed at the transition stage where scale-up, integration, and realistic validation are needed to reduce risk enough to attract private investment and move toward commercialization.

What is the underlying strategy behind ARPA-E and SCALEUP?

ARPA-E focuses on potentially transformational technologies that can create new "learning curves" rather than incremental gains. SCALEUP then helps the most promising ARPA-E-originated advances take the next step by funding the critical work needed to prove they can scale, integrate into systems, perform reliably over time, and be manufactured competitively.