Recovery.gov - Track the Money

The initial ARPA-E FOA will be to seek out, select, and fund R&D projects with well formed plans to develop a transformational concept or breakthrough technology that could make a significant contribution towards attainment of the President’s energy goals, if and when successfully deployed. ARPA-E will begin by issuing a FOA that is narrowly focused on transformational R&D, but intentionally broad on applications and technologies, seeking to embrace a full range of concepts potentially covering all aspects of ARPA-E’s mission. The intent is to harness the creativity of all sectors of the American science and technology community in support of the President’s energy goals and stimulate the pursuit of new and innovative technical opportunities that can spur great leaps forward toward those goals. It is anticipated that most awards will be in the range of $2M to $5M for the base period of performance. Some may be as low as $0.5M or as high as $10M. Efforts selected under this solicitation will be limited to no more than 36 months of performance, but there is a strong preference for a period of performance of no more than 24 months. ARPA-E will welcome submissions from any type of capable technology research and development entity. Work funded under this solicitation must not duplicate, but may complement and potentially enrich the existing portfolio of energy-related strategic research and applied technology R&D.

In addition to the initial FOA, ARPA-E will work to form 8-12 programs which will be focused on topic areas with specific technical goals. In order to form these programs, ARPA-E intends to issue a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit program area ideas from the public and/or hold 2-3 regional workshops to discuss potential program areas with industry and academics. Once specific program areas are formed, ARPA-E intends to issue focused program area solicitations to address specific technical goals.

In addition to the R&D awards, funding will be used to provide federal employees, facilities, and other support activities necessary to implement and execute the Recovery Act plan in support of ARPA-E. These activities include developing and issuing solicitation documents (e.g., Funding Opportunity Announcements), conducting program merit reviews, negotiating and awarding new awards, and monitoring awards to ensure transparency, accountability, and effective project management and financial oversight.

The Recovery Act authorizes ARPA-E the flexibility to award grants, cooperative agreements, Technology Investment Agreements (TIAs), and contracts. This range of available funding mechanisms will allow APRA-E to better fund worthwhile research projects across different types of institutions which may include universities, research foundations, non-profits, the private sector, and collaborations. The lead entity and 90% of the work performed, however, must be located in the United States.

For ARPA-E’s initial FOA, cooperative agreements and TIAs are the most likely instruments to be used because of the need for substantial Government interaction during the performance of the research and development (R&D) project.

The minimum criteria for funding are that the proposal supports the development and commercialization of a promising transformational new energy technology. This new technology shall, upon deployment, permit a reduction of energy imports, facilitate a reduction of energy emissions, or improve the energy efficiency of all economic sections; while simultaneously ensuring that the United States maintains a technological lead in the industries based on advanced energy technologies.

I. Corporate Controls.

Recovery Leadership & Operations -
The DOE Recovery Office is the central point for implementation and execution of Recovery Act activities. A recovery operations team will oversee implementation management, such as monitoring project status, evaluating cost and schedule progress, ensuring thorough reporting, coordinating with external entities, and holding monthly performance and review meetings with senior departmental managers on the implementation status of specific recovery projects.

Recovery Funding Oversight, Performance -
In addition to DOE’s standard funds control mechanisms, Recovery Act funds are subject to additional process controls to ensure funds are not co-mingled, are tracked to enable reporting, and are spent responsibly. DOE recovery funds are released for implementation in a staged approach. Programs develop initial project plans which include performance metrics and require the Secretary of Energy’s approval.

Office of Internal Review (OIR) -
DOE’s OIR helps programs ensure that internal controls are in place, effective, and support the risk based approach to managing Recovery Act activities. OIR programs are being implemented or expanded to ensure the Recovery Act objectives are met and DOE managers and partners are both held accountable for successful execution and also have the appropriate tools to ensure that success. These programs include coordinating DOE’s “Internal Control Acknowledgment” program, conducting agency wide assessments and analyses and performing oversight of Recovery Act programs, including site and field visits. OIR worked with key impacted programs to produce initial vulnerability assessments identifying potential program specific and cross-cutting risks to ensure successful execution

II. ARPA-E Processes and Systems.

The initial portion of the funding will go towards setting up the program, in terms of both human capital and physical infrastructure such as office space and information technology, to establish the processes and systems needed to run the program on an ongoing basis.

Program Direction funding will be utilized for federal, contractor, or Interagency Personnel Assignment staff to support the stand up of ARPA-E. The ARPA-E program will include term appointed General Counsel and procurement officials to ensure proper oversight of contracts and general program activity. ARPA-E staff will include Program Managers who are experts in a variety of relevant technical fields, and who will be responsible for monitoring and reviewing the progress of funding recipients under their direction.

Additionally, contractor support will be utilized to augment the ARPA-E team. This support will be used to assist in developing project milestone schedules, project operating plans and recovery project plans, and assessing traceability/auditability of performance metrics.

ARPA-E will develop a project control system once the program is properly stood up. This system will be designed with auditing functionality and will interface with the department’s iPortal system.

ARPA-E will track time-phased funding information and related performance and milestone data via the DOE’s Corporate Planning System (CPS), allowing ARPA-E to generate documents for authorizing performance of the specific activities. By tracking performance, cost, and milestones at the project level, ARPA-E will have the granularity needed to manage progress towards objectives. This information will then be used to make corrections to the activity (both positive and negative) including performance and funding adjustments.

DOE leverages its existing corporate systems to track and report on Recovery Act activities and to ensure effective funds management. The DOE’s iManage Data Warehouse (IDW) is a corporate enterprise system integrating financial, budgetary, procurement, and program information to monitor project execution. Each Recovery Act program is tracked using unique Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbols (TAFS), and each component project is identified by a unique Project Identification Code (PIC).

IDW is a central data warehouse linking common data elements from each of the Department’s corporate business systems and serving as a “knowledge bank” of information about portfolios, programs, or projects including budget execution, accumulated costs, performance achieved, and critical milestones met. The IDW contains information from multiple corporate systems and will be a tool used to meet information needs for Recovery Act oversight and reporting to Recovery.gov.

The Performance Measure Manager (PMM) is the Department’s performance tracking system. PMM tracks high-level budgetary performance and is being expanded to accommodate Recovery Act performance tracking needs. Performance evaluations will be organized and reported along with results from the Department’s annual budgetary activities in the Annual Performance Report (APR). Performance results will be uploaded into the IDW for required agency reporting.

See DOE’s Agency Wide Recovery Plan for additional information on DOE’s financial and performance tracking mechanisms, found here: www.energy.gov/recovery.

DOE is committed to conducting oversight of its Recovery funds to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse; and will ensure that:

• Funds are awarded and distributed in a prompt, fair, and reasonable manner. DOE contracting officers will comply with changes to pre-solicitation and award notice processes as mandated by FAR Case 2009-010, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Publicizing Contract Actions.
• The recipients and uses of all funds are transparent to the public; public benefits of funds are reported clearly, accurately, and in a timely manner. The standard terms and conditions in individual award agreements will provide information on data elements recipients will be required to report to comply with Section 1512 of the Recovery Act. All OMB specified reporting requirements will be included in project agreements.
• Funds are used for authorized purposes and instances of fraud, waste, error, and abuse are mitigated. Project reports containing information on use of Recovery funds will be required from all awardees, including any sub-awards made by the prime recipient. Frequent announced and unannounced monitoring of recipients will include inspection of records, recordkeeping processes, and reporting systems.
• Recovery Act projects avoid unnecessary delays and cost overruns. ARPA-E will require recipients to submit plans for the use and timely expense of Recovery Act funds. Final determinations of acceptability of plans will be made by the ARPA-E Program Managers with advice from DOE Internal Review staff.
• Program goals are achieved, including specific outcomes and improved results on broader economic indicators. ARPA-E Program Managers will maintain an oversight capability through regular review meetings to ensure that cost, scope, and schedule baselines are achieved. Regular monitoring of individual projects will ensure reporting requirements are being met and projects are proceeding towards stated objectives.

The ARPA-E website contains more information related to the program: http://arpa-e.energy.gov/

ARPA-E Program Managers will publish overall program goals and areas of interest to encourage applications and additional R&D efforts in those areas. Performance measures from the funded projects will be tracked, aggregated, and announced periodically.

The ARPA-E program will be using Recovery Act funds primarily to fund early-stage research & development activities and is not expected to be used to build or operate any significant infrastructure. During application review and project supervision, any work regarding infrastructure improvements will be expected to consider relevant environmental, efficiency, and “green” building requirements.