This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S.Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy(EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO). The U.S. manufacturing sector uses 25% of the nation’s energy and has an annual energy bill of more than $150 billion. Efficiency improvements in manufacturing not only benefit the manufacturing sector, but also impact the energy efficiency of products used throughout the economy.
AMO's technical partnerships support the development, deployment and validation of technologies and practices including increasing the productivity and competitiveness of American manufacturers and other large energy-using facilities and continuing the education and development of the US workforce of energy professionals.
The Federal Government has been funding the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC)1 program, formerly called the Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Center program, since 1976. The goal of the IAC program is twofold: first, to help US manufacturing competitiveness by providing assessments and recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on energy efficiency, productivity, sustainability and competitiveness – including measuring the impacts of these recommendations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and second, to address a growing shortage of engineering professionals with applied energy and manufacturing-related skills by training a diverse cross-section of engineering students through hands-on involvement in these assessments.
This is a restricted eligibility announcement. Eligibility is restricted to the following types of entities: a U.S. college or school of engineering that is an integral part of its institutional structure and that has at least one of its four year undergraduate programs accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission or the Technology Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) or equivalent (The IAC must be in the engineering department that holds the programmatic ABET or equivalent accreditation). The U.S. college or school of engineering must be physically located in the U.S. Eligible minority-serving institutions (MSIs) that meet the eligibility requirements are encouraged to apply.
An entity may only submit one Full Application to this FOA for Topic Area 1 and one Full Application to this FOA for Topic Area 2. If an applicant is seeking to apply for funding under both topic areas, the applicant must submit a separate application to each topic area.
EERE will only consider one Full Application per institution of higher education. For example, EERE will only consider one Full Application per university (not one submission per each college or school under the university). If an entity submits more than one Full Application to either Topic Area, EERE will request a determination from the applicant’s authorizing representative as to which application should be reviewed. Any other submissions received listing the same entity as the applicant will not be eligible for further consideration. This limitation does not prohibit an entity from collaborating on other submissions to this FOA (e.g., as a proposed Satellite or Support Center or other subrecipient) as long as the entity is not the Prime Applicant for those submissions.
Deadlines:
Only the following entities are eligible to apply under this FOA: A U.S. college or school of engineering that is an integral part of its institutional structure and that has at least one of its four year undergraduate programs accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission or the Technology Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) or equivalent (The IAC must be in the engineering department that holds the programmatic ABET or equivalent accreditation). The U.S. college or school of engineering must be physically located in the U.S.
To be eligible to apply under Topic Area 2, the applicant must also apply under Topic Area 1. If an applicant only applies to Topic Area 2, without also applying to Topic Area 1, the application will be deemed ineligible and will not be submitted for further review by EERE. Additionally, to be eligible for funding under Topic Area 2, the applicant must be selected for award negotiations under both Topic Area 1 and Topic Area 2. That is, EERE will not select any Topic Area 2 applications that are not also selected under Topic Area 1.
EERE expects to make a total of approximately $52,500,000 of federal funding available for new awards under this FOA, subject to the availability of appropriated funds. EERE anticipates making approximately 25 to 35 awards under this FOA. EERE may issue one, multiple, or no awards. Individual awards may vary between $1,500,000 and $2,250,000.
