Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

RESEARCH FUNDING

Oases in the valley of death

Nature Energy volume 5, pages 737–738 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Government programmes such as the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) are designed to help cleantech companies overcome startup challenges and bring innovations to market. New analysis shows that support from ARPA-E has led to higher patenting rates but success in winning follow-up funding remains unclear.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Current maturity of innovations needed to reach net zero by 2070.

References

  1. Gaddy, B. E., Sivaram, V., Jones, T. B. & Wayman, L. Energy Policy 102, 385–395 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Goldstein, A., Doblinger, C., Baker, E. & Anadón, L. D. Nat. Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00691-8 (2020).

  3. Energy Technology Perspectives: Special Report (International Energy Agency, 2020).

  4. Turk, D. Presentation to NASEM Workshop on Federal Clean Energy Innovation (National Academy of Sciences, 2020); https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/07-27-2020/enhancing-federal-clean-energy-innovation-a-national-academies-workshop-series

  5. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), Committee on Evaluation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy An Assessment of ARPA-E (National Academies Press, 2017).

  6. Goldstein, A. P. & Narayanamurti, V. Res. Policy 47, 1505–1512 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hart, D. M. & Kearney, M. ARPA-E: Versatile Catalyst for U. S. Energy Innovation (Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 2017).

  8. The Biden plan to secure environmental justice and equitable economic opportunity in a clean energy future. Joebiden.com https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/# (2020).

  9. Huenteler, J., Schmidt, T. S., Ossenbrink, J. & Hoffmann, V. H. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 104, 102–121 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Arlington, VA, USA

    David M. Hart

Authors
  1. David M. Hart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David M. Hart.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hart, D.M. Oases in the valley of death. Nat Energy 5, 737–738 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00703-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00703-7

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing