ARPA-E

ARPA-E SCALEUP Ready

Funds United States alumni technologies moving from prior support into commercial pilots and scale-out activity.

ARPA-E SCALEUP Ready is a closed-eligibility follow-on cooperative agreement program that provides large-scale funding to organizations that have previously received ARPA-E awards and are ready to advance their technology toward commercial pilots or scale-up demonstrations. The program was allocated $50 million in FY2025 and another $50 million in FY2026. The SCALEUP 2023 cohort (announced June 2024) selected four projects for a combined total exceeding $63 million, with individual awards in the $10 million to $20 million range. Project durations are 36 to 60 months, reflecting the longer timelines required for pre-commercial scale-up activities. The median observed award is approximately $15 million, with a floor of $5 million.

Eligibility for SCALEUP Ready is strictly limited to prior ARPA-E awardees whose proposed project has a documented technical lineage to a previously funded ARPA-E project. Companies, universities, non-profit research institutions, and national laboratories are all eligible as lead applicants, provided they meet the prior-award requirement. Unlike OPEN or focused FOAs, there is no broad concept-paper stage open to all — the program is designed for a narrow population of ARPA-E alumni who have demonstrated technical progress and have a defined commercial-pilot or scale-up milestone. Cost share requirements are higher than other ARPA-E programs: for-profit applicants typically contribute 50% of project cost from non-federal sources, reflecting the more commercially proximate nature of the work. TRL window is 5 to 8.

SCALEUP Ready cooperative agreements include active milestone-based reviews by ARPA-E program directors, consistent with the agency's cooperative agreement model across all programs. The FY2026 cycle's specific FOA dates and topic priorities are published on the ARPA-E eXCHANGE portal when available; organizations interested in applying should confirm their prior ARPA-E award qualifies as lineage before investing in a proposal. SCALEUP is among the few U.S. federal mechanisms that explicitly bridges the gap between successful government-funded R&D and first commercial demonstration, making it a critical follow-on pathway for ARPA-E alumni in sectors such as energy storage, advanced manufacturing, and clean fuels.