Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Electrons Leveraged through Electrochemical Conversion Technologies to Realize Opportunities for New Services (ELECTRONS)

工程研究中心规划奖助金竞赛是作为ERC计划的试点征集活动进行的。计划拨款并不是整个ERC竞赛的一部分，而是旨在建立团队之间的能力，以计划集中的、中心规模的工程研究。可再生电力正变得丰富和廉价。我们正处在一个渐进的、长达数十年的行业和社会电气化进程的尖端，用电子取代化石燃料，就像汽车业在过去20年里所做的那样。然而，这种向更清洁能源投入的过渡需要能够有效利用这种能源的设备和工艺。通过电化学转换技术实现新服务机会的电子(电子)利用这一巨大的机会来提供“缺失的环节”，这是一种灵活而高效的方式，可以将可用的电子用于广泛的应用。电子需要涉及许多科学和工程学科和利益攸关方的研究，以实现其从核心装置构造中获得重大社会效益的愿景，以在许多情况下在许多规模上提供能力。这项计划拨款旨在建立一支能够通过连接技术组件和更软的组件来实现这一机会的团队。计划拨款将通过“敏捷”的方法建立团队，这是初创企业经常使用的一种方法。它需要一个由小型团队组成的团队，称为Scrum，他们执行构建-测试-分析的迭代周期。对于给定的产品，要推动快速的学习曲线和开发周期，也要纳入产品客户的输入。团队将使用敏捷Scrum方法进行ERC提案开发，以构建项目和组织的所有方面，将敏捷方法融入DNA？NSF-ERC由这笔规划拨款产生的拟议工作的一部分。在为其他相关技术高度开发的核心系统的基础上，拟建的中心将为各种服务提供使用可再生能源的设备，并将寻求将这些系统商业化。预计这一努力将在技术部门产生衍生公司和就业机会，并为各种行业流程提供高效和清洁的替代技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.Renewable electricity is becoming abundant and cheap. We are on the cusp of a gradual, decades-long process of electrification across industry and society, replacing fossil fuels with electrons, much as the auto industry has executed over the past two decades. However, this transition to cleaner energy inputs demands devices and processes that can use this energy source efficiently. Electrons Leveraged through Electrochemical Conversion Technologies to Realize Opportunities for New Services (ELECTRONS) engages this enormous opportunity to provide the 'missing link,' a flexible and efficient means to use available electrons for a wide range of applications. ELECTRONS requires research that engages many scientific and engineering disciplines and stakeholders to achieve its vision of major societal benefits from a core device construct to deliver capability in numerous contexts at numerous scales. This planning grant aims to build the team that can realize this opportunity by connecting technical and 'softer' components. The planning grant will proceed via an 'agile' approach to building the team, a method often used in start-ups. It entails a team of small teams, called scrums, which execute iterative cycles of ?build-test-analyze? for a given product to drive a rapid learning curve and development cycle, also incorporating input from customers of the product. The team will employ the agile scrum approach for ERC proposal development to build all aspects of the project and organization, putting the agile approach into the ?DNA? of the proposed NSF-ERC effort arising from this planning grant. Based on a core system that is highly developed for other related technologies, the Center to be proposed will deliver the devices for using renewable sources of electricity for a wide range of services and will seek to commercialize these systems. It is anticipated that this effort will produce spin-off companies and jobs in the tech sector as well as efficient and clean replacement technologies for various industry processes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.