A facility may be permitted to work with sub-contractors to carry out support activities for which they are approved. This must be disclosed in budgeting forms and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

TEAMER support is meant to test and help refine existing technology—not design new components, devices, equipment, or intellectual property. However, there is some nuance in this topic, so our Technical Board has put together this reference table describing whether a specific task would be allowable for a TEAMER project. If you have further questions, please reach out to us at teamer@pacificoceanenergy.org.

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In order to better align with the timeframes needed by various stakeholders, TEAMER Requests for Technical Support (RFTS) calls are planned to occur 3 times per year (roughly every 4 months) with an emphasis on rapid implementation and shared results.

Steps to apply for TEAMER support

1.  Pre-consult: Select facility and discuss Request for Technical Support with them.
2.  Apply: Applicant and chosen facility team up to complete their RFTS application online together.
3.  Plan: Approved applicants work with the selected facility to prepare detailed test plans.
4. Test: Technical support to be completed within a 9-month access period following test plan approval. Open Water support may continue for up to 12-months following test plan approval.
5.  Report: Upon completion of testing or expertise activities, applicants must submit post access reporting to be made available to the public.

Prior to submitting an RFTS application, applicants, who may include device developers and researchers, are required to discuss their proposed projects with the facilities to which they plan to request access. This is to ensure the proposed scope and schedule are realistic within the facility’s resources and increase the likelihood of the applicant achieving the desired results and findings. Then the applicant and their chosen facility will complete the application together.

All applications will be independently reviewed to assess feasibility and impact. Applicants will be notified if their request has or has not been approved.

Following RFTS evaluation and approval, selected applicants and facilities will create a detailed test plan. Funding will be distributed to the testing or expertise facility to undertake the work, following shared acceptance of the detailed test plan by the applicant, facility and TEAMER program, as well as acceptance of terms between the facility and applicant (may include intellectual property, non-disclosure, insurance liability, etc.).

Applications will be reviewed by multiple subject matter experts using the criteria listed below. These criteria should be considered when filling out the application.

Technical Feasibility

• The proposed work plan is technically feasible and it is clear that the applicant understands the technical challenges of the proposed work.
• The application includes a clear description of the applicant’s technology, objectives of technical assistance, and type of support.
• Letter of Response from the facility confirms feasibility of activity and is consistent with the application.
• TEAMER assistance builds off previously completed work and is a logical next step for applicant.
• Likelihood of success
• Impact and Relevance

Relevance to end-use market

• Overall value/impact to the marine energy industry
• Overall value/impact to the applicant
• Likelihood that TEAMER support will advance the state of marine energy technology and scientific knowledge and/or improve the technology

For more information regarding evaluation criteria, please see our RFTS Evaluation Criteria document (PDF)

The marine energy sector is relatively small. As such, there are overlapping skills at some institutions where world class testing and support facilities exist in conjunction with independent R&D practitioners advancing marine energy sciences. As a result, there is an obvious need to address potential conflicts of interest between TEAMER applicants, TEAMER network facilities and other program stakeholders. Protections will be put in place to avoid conflicts of interest, both real and perceived, between stakeholders involved in various capacities in the TEAMER program.

TEAMER strives to be transparent and fair, and the Management Team is open to feedback as the program develops. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns.

TEAMER funding will be distributed directly to the TEAMER network facilities to provide the requested support, not to the applicant requesting support. RFTS applicants and facility managers must work closely prior to a TEAMER RFTS submission and fully agree that the final test plan is achievable within schedule and budget, and likely to produce the desired result. In certain cases, TEAMER may provide a stipend to cover travel and other logistical expenses on behalf of the applicant.

TEAMER funding will support a diverse set of research and development goals. Outcomes may be related to grid-focused technology, Powering the Blue Economy  markets or applications, or a cross-cutting topic.

Applicants may apply for TEAMER support under the following categories:

• Numerical Modeling and Analysis
• Laboratory/Bench Testing
• Tank/Flume/Tunnel/Basin Testing
• Open Water Testing
• Expertise
• Commercialization

Technologies utilizing the following resource types are available to apply for support:

• Wave
• Ocean/River current
• Tidal
• OTEC
• Offshore Wind is NOT included

TEAMER can provide support for testing and expertise of:

• Components
• Devices
• Environmental Monitoring Equipment

Requests must fall within the following budget and duration limits for consideration:

• Numerical Modeling/Analysis, Lab/Bench, Expertise, or Tank/Tunnel/Flume/Basin testing: budget up to $200k, duration up to 9 months
• Open Water testing: budget up to $500k maximum (no variance above permitted), duration up to 12 months

Applications exceeding these limits will be considered non-compliant and will not be reviewed. If you expect your request will exceed these budgets or durations, we encourage you to divide it into phases across multiple RFTSs.

The most critical consideration is that applicants and facilities work together prior to submitting their RFTS application to ensure the scope is realistic and likely to be successful with the available resources.

The TEAMER program has three overarching goals:

1. Access to testing infrastructure: provide device developers with access to a wide range of pre-certified facilities at minimal cost and allow for a much faster and more streamlined integration of physical testing and validation into the design process.
2. Access to world-class expertise: pair technology developers with the nation’s leading marine energy experts, providing desktop assistance and access to modeling tools and support.
3. Consistent testing protocols: implement consistent testing protocols for use in the facility network and create a repository of marine energy performance data that will serve the industry as a whole.

TEAMER is envisioned to include a wide array of U.S. marine energy and marine energy-relevant testing facilities including lab and bench-scale facilities; wave tanks, basins, and flumes; and open ocean/field-based testing sites. TEAMER will also support requests for technical expertise to assist with numerical modeling, data collection, and analysis.

For clarification, within TEAMER, “Facility” means an organization or institution (e.g. university) while “Lab or Capabilities” means assistance resources, infrastructure, and expertise (e.g. wave basin) within a “Facility”

To allow the additional time needed for planning, permitting and location identification, open water/field testing will be offered in future RFTS rounds.

The TEAMER facility network will expand over time. The TEAMER Network Director, POET, will be continuously reviewing and qualifying new facilities based on clearly defined facility network criteria, as well as routinely evaluating existing facilities for compliance with the TEAMER criteria.

If you are a facility interested in becoming a part of the TEAMER network, learn more here.

Each TEAMER award is a relationship between three parties: the applicant, the facility, and the TEAMER Network Director (POET). Applicants to TEAMER will need to agree to follow all rules outlined by the program and any requirements from their requested facility. Applicants will be required to (1) complete a detailed test plan prior to the start of the assistance activity, and (2) publish a post-assistance report with details of the project’s results within a short timeframe following the conclusion of the test period. Failing to submit a post-assistance report following tests will impact the eligibility of an applicant to apply for follow-on funding.

While the specific terms may vary project-to-project, data derived from TEAMER-sponsored projects must be made publicly available. For projects to have the most impact, applicants and facilities need to share data in a timely and useful manner that benefits the U.S. ME sector most broadly.

TEAMER has established an intellectual property plan to ensure that data derived from these publicly funded R&D projects properly balance the need to protect intellectual property against the need to advance the ME sector at large. View the TEAMER IP Plan (PDF) here.

Supplies and Equipment Rules for Facilities: FAQ

Definitions:

• Equipment: Individual items with a purchase price > $5000* or an assembly of individual items with an aggregate purchase price > $5000 that is formally designated as a single piece of equipment. Normally, equipment will have a useful life longer than 1 year. These items are capitalized and depreciated accordingly under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
• Supplies: Individual items with a purchase price < $5000. Normally, supplies will have a useful life less than 1 year.
  *unless the organizational threshold for equipment capitalization is < $5000

FAQs

1. Question: Is there a maximum allowable supplies cost that can be included in a TEAMER project budget? Answer: No, but the cost of required supplies should be justified and proportionate to the scope of the TEAMER activity.
2. Question: Can a facility build a test article for an applicant so long as the cost to do so is < $5000? Answer: No.
3. Question: What about items that cost < $5000, but have a useful life longer than a year? Answer: Such items are considered supplies. This might include fixturing components that are used in a specific project, but are suitable for re-use in future projects, as well as computing hardware.
4. Question: The equipment capitalization threshold for my organization is < $5000. Would purchases of items over this threshold, but < $5000, be considered equipment for TEAMER purposes? Answer: Yes (and see answer to next question).
5. Question: Can facilities purchase equipment? Answer: No.
6. Question: Can facilities fabricate equipment? Answer: No.
7. Question: What does it mean to fabricate equipment? Answer: This is a formal organizational process in which, once a piece of equipment is assembled from its constituent parts, it is treated as a depreciable asset. Financial rules related to equipment then apply to the constituent costs (e.g., associated direct costs for the assembly are not subject to indirect cost).

See the chart below for examples of software improvements that are allowable and non-allowable as TEAMER projects. This list is not exhaustive. If you have questions about the specifics of a potential project, please reach out to us at teamer@pacificoceanenergy.org

Similar to the technical support offered through TEAMER, the Commercialization support category is intended to help strategically guide and refine work related to existing technologies, rather than design new systems or directly produce materials. Direct website development, branding and logo development, and promotional material creation are therefore out of scope for what can be covered through TEAMER Commercialization. Strategic guidance related to website structure, branding strategy, and developing an approach to outreach based on a TSR’s goals would, as an alternative example, be within scope of work that would be supported.

Questions about TEAMER can be directed to the TEAMER Network Director at teamer@pacificoceanenergy.org.

TEAMER is open to a wide array of applicants engaged in Marine Energy research and development, and the program aims to support a diverse set of awards. Potential applicants may be part of industry (both large and small companies), academia, not-for-profit organizations, government, or other types of organizations, both domestic and international. Employees of the U.S. Department of Energy are prohibited from applying to RFTS calls, but may be included in awards as network facilities. Research groups, including at National Laboratories are prohibited from applying for support at a facility within their own institution, though conditional exemptions may be given to facilities that have provided TEAMER support to TSRs outside of their institution previously. Please refer to the TEAMER Rules and Regulations for full details.

While TEAMER is open to international applicants, at this time we are unable to accept applications from the following countries: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Belarus. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Energy’s web page on this topic.

The Pacific Ocean Energy Trust (POET) was selected by a competitive process to be the TEAMER Network Director.

TEAMER is a collaborative effort between the DOE’s Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office (H2O), POET, NREL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), and the National Marine Energy Centers (SNMREC, PMEC, and HINMREC). Members of these organizations make up the TEAMER Management Team and Technical Board, tasked with providing the Network Director technical input and approval for activities within TEAMER.