Introspective Portfolio Assessment
NREL is developing a framework for a systematic, data-driven approach to assessing projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices.
The Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices fund projects across numerous technology areas and in partnership with stakeholders throughout the United States. Their funding opportunities foster collaboration across sectors and pave the way for innovative technology research and development to increase energy efficiency across the manufacturing sector.
NREL is creating a standard approach for assessing and communicating the energy and economic impacts of Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices-funded R&D projects. Specifically, NREL is implementing a transparent and flexible methodology, in the form of an introspective portfolio assessment (IPA) protocol, to evaluate R&D investments across the diverse portfolio of R&D technologies.
As a first step, several projects are involved in piloting the IPA protocol over a multiyear trial period, after which these methods will be expanded to the broader Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices R&D portfolio of approximately 300 R&D projects.
Impact
The implementation of the IPA will help track project progress and communicate contribution of current Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices-funded projects to established office success indicators and technology-specific performance, energy efficiency, and cost targets.
Capabilities
NREL applied analysis and project management capabilities to define project data requirements, coordinate with project principal investigators, and support the integration of the IPA elements into the Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices' funding opportunity requirements.
Partners
NREL partners with the Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices and Energetics, a technology and management consulting firm, to support this effort.