Seeking Climate CoLab Fellows
The Climate CoLab (http://climatecolab.org), a project of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (http://cci.mit.edu), seeks to apply the approach used in systems like open source software and Wikipedia to develop, and gain support for, creative new ideas to address climate change.
Activity in the CoLab is organized through contests, and anyone in the world can participate. In 2010 and 2011 the CoLab ran a small number of contests on broad topics, like climate diplomacy and the green economy, and the winning teams presented their work to officials at the United Nations and U.S. Congress. For 2012, the CoLab has launched a new approach, with multiple contests in focused sub-areas and a subsequent round of activity planned for 2013 that will invite broad, integrated proposals.
As part of this effort, we’re seeking Climate CoLab Fellows to help to coordinate these contests. CoLab Fellows are typically postdocs, senior graduate students, or other professionals with knowledge of a subject area of relevance to a Climate CoLab contest. CoLab Fellows should also have good interpersonal skills, be well organized and responsible, and be enthusiastic about building a community in their area.
Fellows will work closely with Climate CoLab Advisors, senior experts in their field, to frame the contest, undertake outreach to prospective participants, oversee ongoing activity on the site, and help with contest judging and communicating the results to key stakeholders. Current CoLab Advisors include faculty from MIT, Stanford, and Columbia; past and current contributors to IPCC assessment reports; senior officials at NGOs; and former senior executives at multinationals.
Climate CoLab Fellows will have an opportunity to work closely with respected senior experts; explore issues of interest to them in depth; and form connections with organizations and citizens engaged around those issues. The total time commitment will be approximately 1-2 hours per week, including on-line communication as necessary with Climate CoLab staff, Advisors, Fellows, stakeholders, and project participants in your contest area.
The Climate CoLab is currently seeking Fellows with interest in the areas listed below, but we also anticipate launching activities on additional topics in the future:
– Decarbonization of energy supply
– Reducing emissions in the fossil fuel supply chain
– Reducing emissions from energy conversion/transmission in electric power
– Reducing emissions from the transportation sector
– Industrial Efficiency
– Social attitudes toward climate change
– Reducing consumption/dematerialization of the economy to reduce emissions
For more information, see http://climatecolab.org/web/guest/resources/-/wiki/Main/Climate+CoLab+Fellows
If you’re interested in being considered as a Climate CoLab Fellow, please contact Robert Laubacher rjl@mit.edu
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2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit
ARPA-E’s third annual Energy Innovation Summit featured a number of the nation’s leaders
across industry, Congress and academia, and covered a wide range of energy topic areas. The
third annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit included 107 speakers and attracted 2,440
attendees from 49 states and 26 countries. Attendees included members of research and
development institutions, global corporations, technology entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers
and government officials.
Keynote speakers for the Summit included:
President Bill Clinton
Microsoft Founder and Chairman Bill Gates
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns
FedEx CEO Fred Smith
BDT Capital Chairman Lee Scott
Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter
MIT President Susan Hockfield
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu
ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar
The Summit featured comments by a bipartisan group of members of Congress:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman
Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander
Delaware Senator Chris Coons
Pennsylvania Congressman Chaka Fattah
Arkansas Congressman Steve Womack
The Summit also featured a Technology Showcase displaying over 240 breakthrough energy
developments from ARPA-E’s awardees and other innovative companies in areas including gridscale storage, power electronics, batteries for electric vehicles, building efficiency, advanced
carbon capture and electrofuels.
Open Funding Opportunity Announcement
Yesterday, Dr. Arun Majumdar, Director of ARPA-E, closed the Summit by announcing that on
Friday, March 2, ARPA-E will release a $150 million funding opportunity open to all
breakthrough energy technologies.
The Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will support transformational and
disruptive high-impact energy R&D projects related to renewable power, bioenergy,
transportation, the electrical grid, and building efficiency, among other technology areas.
ARPA-E’s first FOA, issued in 2009, was similarly an open call for transformational energy
technology solutions to our nation’s most pressing security, economic, and environmental
challenges.