The Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) Ready program provides a vital mechanism for the support of innovative energy R&D that complements ARPA-E’s primary focus on early-stage transformational energy technologies that require proof of concept.
Technologies that achieve substantial technical advancement under ARPA-E support may still face significant technical and commercial challenges upon completion of an award's funding period, and thus are at risk of being stranded in their development path once ARPA-E funding ends. Experience across ARPA-E’s diverse energy portfolios, and input from a wide range of investors and industry stakeholders, indicate that pre-commercial scaling projects are critical to establish practical performance and cost parameters. These pre-commercial scaling projects aim to 1) translate the performance achieved at bench scale to commercially scalable versions of the technology, 2) integrate the technology with broader systems, 3) provide extended performance data, and 4) validate the manufacturability and reliability of new energy technologies. Successful scaling projects should enable industry stakeholders to justify the substantial commitments of financial resources, personnel, manufacturing facilities, and materials necessary to subsequently deploy the technologies at a commercial scale.
SCALEUP Ready seeks to scale the most promising technologies previously funded by ARPA-E. The possibility of ARPA-E-funded technologies becoming stranded along their development pathways leaves substantial intellectual property developed with American taxpayer dollars vulnerable to adoption by foreign competitors, who capture it for continued development and economic benefit overseas. This harms national competitiveness, as U.S. industries often fall behind on the development, scaling, and manufacturing of technologies necessary to compete in rapidly evolving global energy markets. Thus, projects selected for SCALEUP Ready will meet ARPA-E’s statutory goals by “accelerating transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty."
This NOFO will remain open until closed or replaced by a modified NOFO (which is anticipated to occur on an annual basis, subject to the availability of appropriated funds). Applications will be accepted any time while this NOFO remains open.
Closing Date: Sep. 29, 2029
TECHNICAL CATEGORIES OF INTEREST
CATEGORY 1: GRID
- Grid Transmission
- Grid Distribution
- Modeling, Software, Algorithms, And Control For The Grid
- Batteries – Grid Scale
- Grid Scale (Non-Battery) Storage
- Grid Reliability
- Grid – Other
CATEGORY 2: TRANSPORTATION
- Alternative Fuels (Non-Bio)
- Engines – Transportation
- Electric Motors – Transportation
- Fuel Cells - Transportation
- Advanced Vehicle Designs and Materials
- Transportation Management
- Power Electronics – Transportation
- Non-Automotive Ground/Sea Transportation
- Air Transportation
- Non-Battery Storage For Transportation
- Transportation – Other
CATEGORY 3: BUILDING EFFICIENCY
- Combined Heat and Power
- Building Heating and Cooling
- Building Energy Demand Management
- Lighting
- Building Envelope
- Building Efficiency – Other
CATEGORY 4: POWER GENERATION AND ENERGY PRODUCTION: LIQUID AND GASEOUS FUELS/NUCLEAR
- Combined Processes – Generation with Liquid and/or Gaseous Fuels
- Stationary Engines/Turbines For Generation with Liquid and/or Gaseous Fuels
- Stationary Fuel Cells For Generation with Liquid and/or Gaseous Fuels
- Nuclear Fission Power Generation and Materials
- Nuclear Fusion Power Generation and Materials
- Carbon Capture
- Exploration And Extraction (Non-Geothermal) Of Conventional and Unconventional Liquid and/or Gaseous Resources
- Planning And Operations For Generation with Liquid and/or Gaseous Fuels
- Infrastructure for Combustible Gas
- Chemical and Biological Conversions From Liquid and/or Gaseous Fuels
- Water Conservation In Power Generation
- Generation with Liquid and/or Gaseous Fuels – Other
CATEGORY 5: POWER GENERATION: RENEWABLE
- Wind – Energy Capture
- Wind – Energy Conversion
- Geothermal Energy
- Hydro Energy
- Solar – Photovoltaics (PV) / Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV)
- Solar – Non-PV
- Power Electronics – Renewable Generation
CATEGORY 6: BIOENERGY
- Biomass Production
- Biofuel Production – Biological Methods
- Biofuel Production – Nonbiological Methods
- Bioenergy Supply Chain
- Bioenergy – Other
CATEGORY 7: OTHER ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
- Water Production/Reuse
- Thermal Energy Storage
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Appliance And Consumer Electronics Efficiency (End Use)
- Data Centers And Computation
- Industrial Efficiency – Materials
- Industrial Efficiency – Other
- Heat Recovery
- High Temperature Materials
- Semiconductors
- Portable Power
- Other Energy Technologies Not Listed Above
Only organizations seeking to scale subject inventions that meet the following criteria are eligible for funding under this program. Subject inventions:
1. Must have been conceived or first actually reduced to practice during an ARPA-E award;
2. Must have been reported in the iEdison system; and
3. Must be the subject of a filed U.S patent application, which may be a provisional application, or an issued U.S. patent also reported in iEdison (excepting some software products described in Section II.B).
Organizations may not use the same subject invention in more than one concurrent application to this NOFO. More than one application can be made when organizations have multiple subject inventions for different fields of use.
ARPA-E may issue one, multiple, or no awards under this NOFO. The Federal share of awards may vary between $5 million and $20 million.