MEITNER FOA | DE FOA 0001798

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0001798

The MEITNER FOA (Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration) is a Department of Energy ARPA-E funding opportunity aimed at speeding up the readiness of advanced nuclear reactor designs by focusing on the enabling technologies those reactors will need to be commercially viable. ARPA-E is set up to push high-potential energy technologies that are still too early for private investment, with the broader national goals of strengthening U.S. energy and economic security, cutting energy-related emissions (including greenhouse gases), improving efficiency across the economy, and keeping the United States in a leadership position on advanced energy technology. Awards under this FOA are issued as cooperative agreements and follow the federal assistance rules in 2 CFR Part 200 (as amended by 2 CFR Part 910).

At its core, MEITNER is built around the idea that nuclear plants are tightly coupled systems: choices made in one subsystem (components, materials, structures, manufacturing approaches, instrumentation, construction methods) cascade into safety performance, cost, and constructability across the full plant. ARPA-E is trying to drive progress toward the next generation of reactor plants that can operate with walkaway safety and strong security characteristics while also achieving very low capital costs and much faster construction and commissioning timelines than today’s large plants. Rather than funding brand-new reactor core concepts or complete plant designs, MEITNER targets the practical, high-leverage technologies that can plug into the existing U.S. advanced reactor design ecosystem and remove bottlenecks that keep those designs from moving toward deployment.

A defining feature of the program is its heavy reliance on advanced modeling and simulation, particularly multi-physics tools, combined with expert input and (when useful) focused experimental work. The expectation is that funded teams will not just build a component or propose an idea, but will use rigorous modeling to show how an enabling technology behaves in realistic conditions and how it interacts with the rest of a reactor system. The program is intended to produce a set of well-characterized enabling technologies where performance and safety have been evaluated with credible multi-physics modeling, the key cost and performance drivers are clearly identified, important gaps in models or data are flagged (and potentially addressed through targeted experiments), and both construction cost and schedule implications are projected in a defensible way.

MEITNER also places a strong emphasis on commercialization thinking rather than ending at a laboratory demonstration. Awardees are expected to conduct robust techno-economic analysis (TEA) and develop a clear technology-to-market plan so that the pathway from R&D to adoption by reactor developers, suppliers, and ultimately utilities is explicit. The program is framed not only as a technology maturation effort, but also as a way to help establish the foundation for a modern domestic supply chain for advanced nuclear technologies by clarifying requirements, performance envelopes, and manufacturability considerations early.

To keep projects grounded in system reality, ARPA-E built in a separately funded Resource Team that collaborates with awardees. That Resource Team is organized into three coordinated groups: a modeling and simulation sub-team, a techno-economic analysis sub-team, and a subject matter expert sub-team. Through this structure, project teams can draw on expertise from both nuclear and non-nuclear disciplines, which is important because many of the most useful enabling advances may come from adjacent fields (for example, advanced manufacturing, high-temperature materials, sensors and controls, modular construction methods, or digital engineering workflows). The intent is to help each project quantify how its enabling technology would fit within an actual plant architecture to improve safety, deployability, safeguards, cost competitiveness, and overall commercial credibility.

The opportunity was issued as DE-FOA-0001798 under CFDA 81.135, categorized under science and technology R&D. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning proposals could come from a wide range of entity types (subject to any specific eligibility clarifications in the FOA itself). ARPA-E anticipated making multiple awards, with an expected total of about 15 projects and an award ceiling of $5,000,000 per award. The FOA’s original timeline shows a creation date of October 20, 2017, with a concept paper deadline of December 4, 2017, and ARPA-E required that concept papers be submitted through its ARPA-E eXCHANGE system (submissions by other methods would not be reviewed). Applicants were encouraged to submit at least 48 hours before the deadline to avoid last-minute submission issues.

Finally, MEITNER encourages teams to leverage existing DOE Office of Nuclear Energy assets, especially programs like GAIN (Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear) and the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) Network, for strategic experiments during or after the project. This is essentially a way to connect ARPA-E’s fast-moving, milestone-driven development style with specialized nuclear infrastructure and user facilities, so modeling results can be anchored to targeted data when needed and promising enabling technologies can transition more smoothly toward industry uptake.

• The Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "MEITNER FOA" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.135.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 20, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 04, 2017 The submission deadline for Concept Papers is 12/04/2017. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their Concept Papers at least 48 hours in advance of the submission deadline. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 15 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for DE FOA 0001798

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