Overview

The 2017 RAPID Call for Proposals period ended on September 18, 2017.

The RAPID institute led a national effort to address scientific knowledge and technology gaps in process intensification and modular manufacturing. On August 22, 2017, the RAPID manufacturing institute released a call for research and development project proposals in the areas of process intensification and modular chemical processing that will advance the following institutional goals, summarized below:

  • More than 20% Increase in energy efficiency in a process intensification technology
  • Doubling of energy productivity through a process intensification technology
  • Intensified process modules with 10x reduction in capital cost, 20% improvement in energy efficiency, and 20% lower emissions/waste related to commercial state of the art.
  • Approaches to reduce manufacturing costs of process intensified modules by 20%
  • Tool to reduce cost of deploying modular chemical process intensification by 50%

Successful projects will include collaborations among/between industry, academia, national laboratories, non-profit, and other stakeholders that advance technologies applicable to one or more of RAPID’s focus areas -Chemical and Commodity Processing, Renewable Feedstock Processes, Natural Gas Upgrading, Modeling and Simulation, Process Intensification Fundamentals, or Modular Manufacturing.  

Proposal Requirements

  • RAPID’s call for proposals will be open from August 22, 2017 to September 18, 2017. 
  • No applications can be accepted after September 18, 2017 (11:59 Eastern Time).  
  • The proposal process is open to all interested parties, but applicants must be RAPID members to be eligible to accept an award, if selected.
  • A proposal format is included in the following LINK. Applicants should adhere to proposal section lengths and formatting included in the proposal template. 
  • Applicants can upload completed applications along with additional required information at the following Application Page.
  • One scoring criteria for submitted projects will be the level of industrial support as demonstrated by cost share commitments. RAPID has an institute target of a 2:1 cost share ratio (partner: federal) for all projects. While projects with less than a 2:1 cost share ratio will be considered, a minimum cost share ratio of 1:1 will be required for a proposal to be considered.

Proposal Scoring and Review

All proposals must be submitted to one of the six RAPID focus areas. The sub-committees of RAPID’s technical advisory board will be responsible for reviewing and rating all proposals summited to their area based on a set of pre-defined metrics detailed in the additional information below.  RAPID’s CTO will work with the Institute’s technical advisory board (TAB) to combine proposal recommendations from each focus area into a single set of recommended proposals for the Institute. These proposals will be reviewed with RAPID’s governing board.  Selected projects will subsequently be submitted to DOE for their concurrence. These projects will then enter negotiations with RAPID and the final project package will be sent to the DOE prior to the final awarding of funds.

Proposals will be scored based on 5 categories including: (1) fit with key PI and MCPI gaps identified during RAPID’s initial roadmapping activities; (2) the ability of a successful project to meet RAPID metrics for project impact; (3) the technical merits of the project, including demonstrating a significant advancement in the basic scientific knowledge or technology in one or more application areas; (4) the background of the assembled team and their abilities to carry out the proposed work; and (5) the level of industrial support as demonstrated by cost share commitments.

Details on scoring approach, the project review process and the identified technology and knowledge gaps of interest can be found in the detailed documentation listed below.

Timeline

  • Call for Proposals Opens - August 22nd, 2017
  • Call for Proposals Closes – September 18th, 2017
  • Project Endorsed Recommendation by RAPID Technical Advisory & Governing Boards – Oct 30th, 2017
  • Project negotiations completed with signed sub-award agreements, cost share verification, budget, and other required documents to RAPID and DOE by December 31st, 2017

Additional information

Additional information about RAPID & the proposal review and scoring process can be found in the following;

General questions about this announcement can be directed to jameb@aiche.org