History

The EFRC program commenced in 2009; 46 Centers were selected based on scientific peer review and funded at $2-5 million per year for a five-year initial award period. Altogether, the DOE Office of Science invested $777 million in the first five years, of which $277 million were from one-time American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. An open recompetition of the program in 2014 resulted in four-year awards to 32 centers, 22 of which are renewals of existing EFRCs and 10 of which are new EFRCs for an additional investment of $400 million. In 2016, DOE added 4 new four-year centers to accelerate the scientific breakthroughs needed to support the Department’s environmental management and nuclear cleanup mission for an investment of $40 million. An open recompetition in 2018 resulted in 42 awards for an anticipated total of $380 million: 11 two-year extensions of existing EFRCs, 9 four-year renewals of existing EFRCs, and 22 four-year awards for new EFRCs. A targeted competition in environmental management, microelectronics, polymer upcycling, and quantum information science in 2020 resulted in 10 awards for an anticipated total of $100 million: 2 two-year extensions of existing EFRCs, 2 four-year renewals of existing EFRCs, and 6 four-year awards for new EFRCs. The 2022 recompetition targeted clean energy sciences, transformative manufacturing, microelectronics, polymer upcycling, carbon dioxide reduction, and quantum information science. 16 new four-year centers, 17 four-year renewal, and 10 two-year extension awards to existing centers were made for an anticipated total of $420 million. The 53 non-renewing EFRCs appear in the History pages.

Years Lead Institution Director(s) Center Name
2009-2014 Argonne National Laboratory Christopher L. Marshall Institute for Atom-efficient Chemical Transformations (IACT)
2009-2014 Arizona State University Devens Gust Center for Bio-Inspired Solar Fuel Production (BISfuel)
2009-2014 Columbia University James Yardley Re-Defining Photovoltaic Efficiency Through Molecule Scale Control (RPEMSC)
2009-2014 Cornell University Hector D. Abruna Energy Materials Center at Cornell (emc2)
2009-2014 Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Richard Sayre (8/2009 - 9/2011); Jan Jaworski (10/2011 - 7/2014) Center for Advanced Biofuel Systems (CABS)
2009-2014 General Electric Global Research Grigorii Soloveichik Center for Electrocatalysis, Transport Phenomena and Materials for Innovative Energy Storage (CETM)
2009-2014 Idaho National Laboratory Dieter Wolf (9/2009 - 5/2010); Todd Allen (6/2010 - 7/2014) Center for Materials Science of Nuclear Fuel (CMSNF)
2009-2014 Los Alamos National Laboratory Michael Nastasi (8/2009 - 11/2011); Amit Misra (12/2011 - 7/2014) Center for Materials at Irradiation and Mechanical Extremes (CMIME)
2009-2014 Louisiana State University James Spivey Center for Atomic-Level Catalyst Design (CALCD)
2009-2014 Michigan State University Donald T. Morelli Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion (RMSSEC)
2009-2014 National Renewable Energy Laboratory Alex Zunger (8/2009 - 5/2011); William Tumas (6/2011 - 7/2014) Center for Inverse Design (CID)
2009-2014 Oak Ridge National Laboratory G. Malcolm Stocks Center for Defect Physics in Structural Materials (CDP)
2009-2014 Princeton University Chung K. Law Combustion Energy Frontier Research Center (CEFRC)
2009-2014 Sandia National Laboratories Jerry Simmons (8/2009 - 10/2011); Michael E. Coltrin (11/2011 - 7/2014) EFRC for Solid State Lighting Science (SSLS)
2009-2014 Stanford University Fritz Prinz and Stacey Bent Center on Nanostructuring for Efficient Energy Conversion (CNEEC)
2009-2014 University of Arizona Neal R. Armstrong Center for Interface Science: Solar Electric Materials (CISSEM)
2009-2014 University of California, Los Angeles Vidvuds Ozolins Molecularly Engineered Energy Materials (MEEM)
2009-2014 University of California, Santa Barbara John Bowers Center for Energy Efficient Materials (CEEM)
2009-2014 University of Massachusetts Thomas P. Russell and Paul Lahti Polymer-Based Materials for Harvesting Solar Energy (PHaSE)
2009-2014 University of Michigan Peter F. Green Center for Solar and Thermal Energy Conversion (CSTEC)
2009-2014 University of South Carolina Kenneth Reifsnider Heterogeneous Functional Materials Center (HeteroFoaM)
2009-2014 University of Southern California P. Daniel Dapkus Center for Energy Nanoscience (CEN)
2009-2014 University of Texas, Austin Paul Barbara (8/2009 - 10/2010); Xiaoyang Zhu (11/2010 - 5/2012); Peter Rossky (6/2012 - 7/2014) Understanding Charge Separation and Transfer at Interfaces in Energy Materials (CST)
2009-2014 University of Virginia T. Brent Gunnoe Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalization (CCHF)
2009-2018 Brookhaven National Laboratory Seamus Davis (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2014); Peter Johnson (8/1/2014 - 7/31/2018) Center for Emergent Superconductivity (CES)
2009-2018 California Institute of Technology Harry Atwater (8/1/2009-1/30/2015); Ralph Nuzzo (2/1/2015 - 7/31/2018) Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion (LMI)
2009-2018 Carnegie Institution of Washington Ho-kwang Mao (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2014); Russell Hemley (8/1/2014 - 7/31/2018) Energy Frontier Research in Extreme Environments (Efree)
2009-2018 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Donald DePaolo Center for Nanoscale Control of Geologic CO2 (NCGC)(8/1/2009 - 7/31/2014);Center for Nanoscale Controls on Geologic CO2 (NCGC)(8/1/2014 - 7/31/2018)
2009-2018 Los Alamos National Laboratory Victor Klimov Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics (CASP)
2009-2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Marc Baldo Center for Excitonics (CE)
2009-2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gang Chen Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC)
2009-2018 Purdue University Maureen McCann Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels (C3Bio)
2009-2018 University of Notre Dame Peter Burns Materials Science of Actinides (MSA)
2009-2018 University of Texas at Austin Gary Pope (8/1/2009 - 6/30/2013); Steven Bryant (7/1/2013 - 8/30/2014); Larry Lake (9/1/2014 - 7/31/2018) Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security (CFSES)
2009-2018 Washington University in St. Louis Robert Blankenship Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC)
2014-2018 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Robert Finley (8/1/2015 - 4/15/2015); Scott Frailey (4/16/2015 - 7/31/2018) Center for Geologic Storage of CO2 (GSCO2)
2009-2020 Argonne National Laboratory Michael Thackeray (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2014); Paul Fenter (8/1/2014 - 7/31/2020) Center for Electrical Energy Storage (CEES) (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2014); Center for Electrochemical Energy Science (CEES)(8/1/2014 - 7/31/2020)
2009-2020 Northwestern University Michael Wasielewski Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center (ANSER) (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2018); Center for Light Energy Activated Redox Processes (LEAP)(8/1/2018 - 7/31/2020)
2009-2020 Stony Brook University (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2014); Binghamton University (8/1/2014 - 7/31/2020) Clare Grey (8/1/2009 - 6/17/2011); M. Stanley Whittingham (6/18/2011 - 7/31/2020) NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES)
2009-2020 University of California, Berkeley Berend Smit (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2014); Jeffrey Long (8/1/2014 - 7/31/2020) Center for Gas Separations (CGS)
2009-2020 University of Maryland Gary Rubloff Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage (NEES)
2009-2020 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Thomas J. Meyer (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2018); Gerald Meyer (8/1/2018 - 7/31/2020) Center for Solar Fuels (UNC) (8/1/2009 - 7/31/2018); Alliance for Molecular PhotoElectrode Design for Solar Fuels (AMPED)(8/1/2018 - 7/31/2020)
2014-2020 Montana State University (8/1/2014 - 7/31/2018); Washington State University (8/1/2018 - 7/31/2020) John Peters Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis Center (BETCy)
2014-2020 National Renewable Energy Laboratory William Tumas Center for Next Generation of Materials Design (CNGMD)
2014-2020 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Yanwen Zhang Energy Dissipation to Defect Evolution (EDDE)
2014-2020 Temple University John Perdew Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials (CCDM) (8/1/2014 - 7/31/2018); Center for Complex Materials from First Principles (CCM)(8/1/2018 - 7/31/2020)
2014-2020 University of California, Riverside Jing Shi Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems (SHINES)
2009-2022 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Shang Dai Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center (FIRST)
2009-2022 University of Delaware Dionisios Vlachos Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI)
2014-2022 Harvard University Cynthia Friend Integrated Mesoscale Architectures for Sustainable Catalysis (IMASC)
2014-2022 University of California, Riverside Laura Gagliardi Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center (ICDC)
2016-2022 Florida State University Thomas Albrecht-Schoenzart Center for Actinide Science & Technology (CAST)
2016-2022 Ohio State University Gerald Frankel Center for Performance and Design of Nuclear Waste Forms and Containers (WastePD)