A Decision Framework for Prioritizing Industrial Materials Research and Development

Federal research and development (R&D) decisionmakers are faced with increasingly difficult choices when allocating shrinking resources among various R&D programs. The authors explore this issue from the perspective of the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT). They examine the challenges the OIT's Industrial Materials for the Future program faces in allocating resources to reduce energy use and waste production in nine U.S. industries, and present a decision framework for evaluating proposed R&D and the data that are needed to address research needs.