Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement titled 'MHK R&D University Consortium'

The purpose of this Notice is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Wind & Water Power Technologies Office (WWPTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) Research and Development University Consortium. This anticipated FOA is to support a university consortium to leverage existing in-situ Research and Development expertise to advance U.S. MHK technology, while developing intellectual capital for a globally-competitive workforce. The individual consortium-defined Research and Development activities pursued in the overall university consortium project will address strategic opportunities in DOE?s MHK technology development portfolio. In applying, an eligible university consortium must demonstrate capabilities and expertise in Research and Development to fill strategic opportunities within the Program?s portfolio including: ? Logistics development for operations and maintenance of devices and arrays in energetic marine environments. ? Development and validation of efficient high-fidelity resource characterization and/or modeling techniques. ? Development and techno-economic studies of devices for distributed applications. ? Component technology development necessary for enabling arrays: e.g. moorings and foundations, transmission, and other offshore grid components. ? Array performance testing and evaluation. ? In-water testing and evaluation of new, cost-effective environmental monitoring techniques and instrumentation in energetic marine environments. NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this notice. Prospective Applicants to this FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that the FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in the first half of 2014.