Generating Electricty Managed by Intelligent Nuclear Assets (GEMINA) | DE FOA 0002174

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002174

Generating Electricity Managed by Intelligent Nuclear Assets (GEMINA) is a funding opportunity run by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ARPA-E exists to push forward high-impact energy technologies that are still too early for most private investment, with the broader national goals of improving U.S. energy and economic security, cutting energy-related emissions (including greenhouse gases), reducing dependence on foreign energy imports, and improving energy efficiency across the economy. Awards under this opportunity are made under DOE and federal financial assistance rules (including 2 CFR 200 and related DOE provisions), and proposals must be submitted through ARPA-E's online system (eXCHANGE) rather than by email or other channels.

At its core, GEMINA is about making advanced nuclear reactors cheaper and easier to operate by designing operations and maintenance (O&M) into the technology from the beginning rather than bolting it on later. ARPA-E is responding to a real economic problem in nuclear power: today's operating light-water reactors often carry high fixed O&M costs, and large conventional reactor construction projects in the U.S. and Western Europe have frequently experienced major schedule delays and cost overruns. Meanwhile, many pathways to deep decarbonization assume the grid will need "firm" low-carbon power that can run regardless of weather, and nuclear power is a leading candidate. Advanced reactors are attractive because they can potentially offer more flexible operations, different power output ranges, improved safety cases, high-temperature heat for industrial uses, and (depending on the design) lower capital costs and shorter build schedules. GEMINA's premise is that advanced reactors will only succeed at scale if their long-term operating model is competitive, including staffing levels and routine maintenance costs.

The central technical thrust of GEMINA is the development of digital twins (DTs), or closely equivalent platforms, for advanced reactor designs. In this program, a digital twin is not just a static model; it is intended to be a living, integrated digital representation of the plant that can support real operational decision-making and maintenance planning. ARPA-E is explicitly looking for interdisciplinary teams to combine tools that have driven efficiency in other industries but have not been widely adopted in nuclear operations, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced data analytics, distributed computing, high-fidelity physics-based simulation, advanced control systems, predictive maintenance approaches, and model-based fault detection and diagnostics. The idea is to use these tools to anticipate failures before they happen, reduce unnecessary maintenance, shorten outages, improve reliability, and reduce how much manual operator intervention is required during both normal and off-normal conditions.

Because many advanced reactor concepts are still in design or pre-deployment phases and do not yet have operating commercial units that can generate large volumes of real plant data, GEMINA also emphasizes cyber-physical systems (CPS) as a practical testbed. Teams working on core plant operations are expected to build CPS environments that emulate plant operating dynamics using a mix of software and non-nuclear experimental facilities such as flow loops and other relevant test infrastructure. These CPS platforms act as the "real asset" surrogate where teams can stress-test their digital twin software and O&M concepts, validate models, and generate data in regimes where uncertainties are high or where direct experimentation on an actual reactor is not possible. For work that focuses on systems outside the reactor core, teams are encouraged to propose appropriate test systems and data sources that still allow credible validation of the O&M approach.

Beyond lowering O&M costs, ARPA-E frames GEMINA as enabling several knock-on benefits that matter for commercialization. One is design feedback: since many advanced reactor designs are still evolving, insights from a digital-twin-driven O&M strategy can feed back into the engineering process to simplify maintenance, eliminate unnecessary procedures, improve reliability, and enhance operational flexibility over an expected multi-decade plant life (the document references long-life systems on the order of 40 years). Another is regulatory efficiency: more realistic simulated operations and better understanding of reactor behavior could strengthen the technical basis regulators use to evaluate advanced designs, potentially reducing licensing timelines and associated costs. A third is market de-risking: current O&M cost estimates for advanced reactors often lean on light-water reactor analogies even though advanced concepts may use different coolants, fuels, materials, and temperature ranges. By generating reactor-specific operational data and credible cost models, GEMINA aims to improve levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) projections and help utilities and investors make better-informed decisions, while also highlighting supply chain needs for scale-up.

GEMINA also points to standards and workforce impacts. Compliance with nuclear quality and assurance standards (such as NQA-1) can be a major cost driver, and ARPA-E suggests that program outputs could inform more technically grounded and risk-based standards tailored to advanced reactors, reducing uncertainty and rework later. In parallel, the digital twin environments developed through GEMINA could become training and simulation platforms for future operator instruction and for supporting regulator certification processes as these reactors approach deployment.

Administratively, the opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0002174) was issued by ARPA-E within DOE under CFDA 81.135. It allowed for cooperative agreements and grants, and eligibility was described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity, subject to any clarifications in the full FOA). The FOA listed an award ceiling of $10,000,000 and anticipated roughly 15 awards. Key dates in the posted record include a creation date of October 2, 2019 and an original closing date of November 13, 2019, with applicants encouraged to submit at least 48 hours before the deadline. The full FOA, requirements, and submission process were provided through ARPA-E's eXCHANGE portal.

• The Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Generating Electricty Managed by Intelligent Nuclear Assets (GEMINA)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.135.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 02, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 13, 2019 Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications at least 48 hours in advance of the submission deadline. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $10,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 15 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for DE FOA 0002174

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: