Company Profile
Company Overview
WHO WE ARE
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. ARPA-E awardees are unique because they are developing entirely new ways to generate, store, and use energy.
WHAT WE DO
ARPA-E projects have the potential to radically improve U.S. economic prosperity, national security, and environmental well being. We focus on transformational energy projects that can be meaningfully advanced with a small amount of funding over a defined period of time. Our streamlined awards process enables us to act quickly and catalyze cutting-edge areas of energy.
HOW WE DO IT
ARPA-E empowers America's energy researchers with funding, technical assistance, and market readiness. Our rigorous program design, competitive project selection process, and active program management ensure thoughtful expenditures. ARPA-E Program Directors serve for limited terms to ensure a constant infusion of fresh thinking and new perspectives.
Company History
In 2005, leaders from both parties in Congress asked the National Academies to "identify the most urgent challenges the U.S. faces in maintaining leadership in key areas of science and technology," as well as specific steps policymakers could take to help the U.S. compete, prosper, and stay secure in the 21st century.
In its report for Congress, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, the National Academies called for decisive action, warning policymakers that U.S. advantages in science and technology--which made the country a world leader for decades--had already begun to erode.
The report recommended that Congress establish an Advanced Research Projects Agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) modeled after the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)--the agency credited with such innovations as GPS, the stealth fighter, and computer networking.
In 2007, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law The America COMPETES Act, which officially authorized ARPA-E's creation. In 2009, ARPA-E received its first appropriations of $400 million, which funded ARPA-E's first projects.