The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy funds high-risk, high-reward projects based on the significance and urgency of the problems they aim to solve, Jennifer Gerbi, acting director at ARPA-E, said in an interview aired Wednesday.

Appearing on the news program Government Matters, Gerbi discussed the agency’s detailed selection process, which involves different levels of internal and external reviews and empowered directors.

Gerbi provided an overview of their two funding models. The focused model involves an individual director “that decides what problem to solve and why.” This model also entails pressure testing of ideas at multiple points before being pitched to the agency.

The open model, on the other hand, is conducted every three years to allow a broader range of applicants to submit proposals as long as they are aligned with the agency’s mission. This model “enables us to [discover] areas that we had no idea existed, or solutions in a space where we don’t have focused models,” Gerbi explained. ARPA-E also offers small business innovation research seedling grants as part of its open-door program.

Once the project is awarded, ARPA-E has “substantial involvement” with the teams, conducting quarterly reviews of project milestones and work plans. It also helps identify a first market to help new and obscure technologies move forward, Gerbi told Government Matters.

ARPA-E was founded in 2009 and has since funded more than 1,000 projects on energy efficiency, resiliency and sustainability. The agency recently invested in proposals for carbon-neutral buildings and battery improvement technology.

Gerbi noted that return on investment in ARPA-E is manifested in the “technologies that exist now that didn’t exist before that are moving forward.”

A National Institute of Standards and Technology report describes seven “grand challenges” that U.S. semiconductor producers should address to strengthen domestic market competitiveness and leadership.

The report centered around standardization, metrology, modeling and simulation in microelectronics design, manufacturing and packaging, NIST said Thursday.

“The measurement challenges impacting the U.S. semiconductor industry are at a critical stage and must be addressed if we are to ensure U.S. leadership in this important sector,” NIST Director Laurie Locascio remarked.

The grand challenges are the agency’s recommendations to improve each of the following areas:

• Metrology for materials purity, properties and provenance
• Advanced metrology for future microelectronics manufacturing
• Enabling metrology for integrating components in advanced packaging
• Metrology to enhance security and provenance of microelectronic-based components and products
• Modeling and simulating semiconductor materials, designs, and components
• Modeling and simulating semiconductor manufacturing processes
• Standardizing new materials, processes, and equipment for microelectronics

As part of its research, NIST sought input from more than 800 industry, government and academic representatives who attended agency-hosted Semiconductor Metrology Workshops. The Department of Commerce also posted a request for information to gather data for the study.

The publication comes less than a month after President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law that includes a provision for the institute to facilitate research and development projects in the metrology discipline to help companies advance microelectronics technology.

The Defense Innovation Unit has asked industry stakeholders to propose commercial hypersonic vehicles that could be used in high-cadence testing and assessment of new hypersonic technologies.

DIU said the system should come with several capabilities, such as the capacity to enable long-endurance testing of hypersonic platforms and related components, detection and tracking sensors; communications systems and components; environmental sensors; and guidance, navigation and control systems and components.

The proposed platform for the agency’s Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities requirement should meet a number of criteria, including Mach 5+ with a maneuverable and non-ballistic flight profile and a method for collecting near real-time data on the performance of in-flight vehicles and subsystems to meet design, research, testing and assessment objectives.

Interested vendors may submit multiple proposals and should include in their solution briefs their proposed systems engineering approach, technical and programmatic risks, operational or deployable restrictions and proposed schedule to first flight.

Proposals are due Sept. 16th.

A team of U.S. Air Force software developers has tested a new open systems enclave on an F-22 Raptor aircraft during a flight demonstration at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Members of the Air Combat Command Federal Laboratory, Edwards AFB test pilots and software developers from the 309th Software Engineering Group developed the OSE, which consists of government-owned software architecture with existing hardware, the Air Force said Wednesday.

“We’ve proven the ability to rapidly evaluate and integrate next-generation technologies developed by experts in government, industry, and academia at a lower cost with software portability across defense platforms,” said Maj. Allen Black, test pilot and project co-lead for the F-22 aircraft.

The in-flight demonstration marks the first time that the open-source container orchestration software has been used on any fighter aircraft.

During the test, the enclave showcased its ability to integrate new technologies from the first line of code to flight in less than 60 days.