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Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group Launches New Energy R&D Project

Press Release

February 7, 2008

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Energy Technology Innovation Policy; Environment and Natural Resources; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

With global climate change fueling an unprecedented need for energy investment, the Harvard Kennedy School's Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research group is launching a new three-year project to develop energy research policy recommendations, prepare annual budget commentaries, and assess energy technology innovation around the country. The project is part of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

The project will be funded by a $1.46 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Climate Change Initiative.

ETIP's work on this project aims to achieve three distinct but connected goals:

- Develop policy recommendations for an expanded U.S. federal energy-technology innovation endeavor, commensurate with the magnitude of the climate change challenge. These would include recommendations for the allocation of energy technology R&D under the federal research, development and demonstration budget. As part of this effort, ETIP will study the effectiveness of past and current U.S. energy-technology innovation policies and programs.

- Evaluate the U.S. federal energy research, development, and demonstration budget on an annual basis, and release an assessment and accompanying database of investment trends and levels.

- Assess energy technology innovation activities in the U.S. private sector, as well as in the public and private sectors of China, India, Japan and Europe, to better understand funding gaps and the role that the U.S. can and should play in accelerating the energy technology innovation needed to address climate change.

To sign up for updates on the project and other energy policy and climate change research, please visit: www.belfercenter.org/subscribe

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Additional background information:

About ETIP:
The Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group seeks to determine and promote the adoption of effective strategies for developing and deploying cleaner and more efficient energy technologies, primarily in three of the biggest energy-consuming nations in the world: China, India, and the United States.

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation:
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties. The goal of the foundation's Climate Change Initiative is to help build a clean energy economy through the pursuit of three strategies: designing optimal pricing policies, including international agreements, for greenhouse gases; identifying policies that accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies; and advancing efforts to assess the likely effects of climate change and lower the impact of those effects on people and the environment.

For more information about this publication please contact the ETIP Coordinator at 617-496-5584.

For Academic Citation:
"Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group Launches New Energy R&D Project.", February 7, 2008.