The Association of American Universities (AAU) is asking its member campuses to recommend individuals to serve as temporary personnel to help organize the new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The Department of Energy (DoE) is looking for individuals with the knowledge and expertise to help it organize the new agency. These individuals would serve as temporary program managers and provide additional program support (for both 6-to-12-month and three-year terms of service). AAU has already collected and forwarded to DoE several resumes from its member campuses, but would appreciate receiving additional nominations.
Resumes and questions can be sent to Jonathan Nurse, UW Assistant Director of Federal Relations, who will forward UW recommendations to AAU as a set.
To establish ARPA-E, Congress provided DoE with $400 million in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $15 million in the FY09 omnibus appropriations bill. ARPA-E was originally authorized in the America COMPETES Act (P.L. 110-69) in 2007, but it received no funding in FY07 or FY08.
The Department of Energy hopes to staff the agency quickly with highly qualified faculty members and others who can help the agency become established and begin to fund research proposals. Recovery Act funds must be obligated within the next two years.