Fiscal Year 2024 Vehicle Technologies Office Batteries Funding Opportunity Announcement | DE FOA 0003383

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0003383

The Fiscal Year 2024 Vehicle Technologies Office Batteries Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE FOA 0003383) is a discretionary federal funding opportunity administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory to support research, development, demonstration, and deployment work that strengthens the U.S. battery ecosystem and helps put the country on a path toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The program is focused on practical, high-impact advances for batteries used in transportation, with an emphasis on taking promising ideas and pushing them further along the pipeline so they can be manufactured, deployed, and scaled with clear benefits to cost, safety, and performance.

The technical scope centers on several priority areas that address current bottlenecks in battery technology and adoption. One major theme is the development of innovative battery chemistries and component materials, meaning applicants may propose new or improved electrochemical systems and the underlying materials that make them work, such as cathodes, anodes, electrolytes, separators, and other cell components. Another central theme is safety, specifically reducing cascading battery fires. That generally refers to limiting or preventing thermal runaway propagation, where failure in one cell triggers failures in neighboring cells and spreads through a module or pack. Projects in this area typically target detection, mitigation, materials and design strategies, pack-level safety engineering, and approaches that reduce the likelihood or severity of propagation events. A third emphasis is manufacturing cost reduction across battery electrodes, cells, and packs, which can include new manufacturing methods, process improvements, quality control approaches, yield improvements, and design-for-manufacturing strategies that lower cost while maintaining or improving performance and reliability.

Awards are expected to be made as cooperative agreements, which usually means the government will have substantial involvement during the project period compared with a standard grant. In practice, that often translates into more structured project management, regular technical reporting and reviews, and active coordination with the funding agency on milestones and deliverables. The Funding Activity Category is listed as Energy, Science and Technology, and other Research and Development, and the program is associated with CFDA number 81.086.

The opportunity is open to a broad range of applicant types, including state, county, and city or township governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments and other tribal organizations; nonprofit organizations (including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) nonprofits, excluding institutions of higher education in those categories); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. This wide eligibility is designed to encourage teams that combine university research strengths, industry manufacturing and scale-up capabilities, nonprofit and public-sector mission support, and, where relevant, tribal participation and leadership.

From a funding standpoint, the award ceiling is $4,200,000 per award, and the agency anticipates making about 20 awards under this announcement. The original closing date for applications is October 30, 2024. The opportunity record was created on August 8, 2024. Overall, the FOA is aimed at moving battery technologies forward in ways that matter for real-world transportation deployment: better chemistry and materials, safer systems that are less prone to cascading fires, and manufacturing approaches that materially reduce the cost of electrodes, cells, and packs.

• The National Energy Technology Laboratory in the energy, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year 2024 Vehicle Technologies Office Batteries Funding Opportunity Announcement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.086.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-08-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-10-30. (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 $4,200,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for DE FOA 0003383

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