Research and Development Consortia
The time is
ripe for the creation of a global solar fuels consortium: SOFI’s support stems
from an international, wide-ranging groundswell that began with the solar fuels
community, but has since exponentially grown. Over the past nine months, global
universities, government labs, academic institutions, private corporations and
non-profit organizations have come together to realize the vision that SOFI
presents.
Early R&D consortia such as the Human Genome Project emerged from the recognition that shared challenges were best addressed with shared resources. The increased availability of new collaborative tools has enabled enormous improvements in roadmapping technology and data-sharing platforms, thereby facilitating the establishment of new consortia representing a vast array of technologies. Although funding, especially in the case of early-stage R&D consortia, has generally been sourced through government agencies, financial support also come through a combination of membership fees, industry sponsorship and philanthropy. SOFI’s business model has been crafted in response to the strengths and weaknesses R&D consortia such as Biomarkers, CDISC, C-Path, the Pistoia Alliance and PVMC commonly face. The principal challenges facing a solar consortium are:
Current American Chemical Society journal publications from SOFI collaborators: |