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:

•     Achieving critical mass through membership commitment
•     Building trust within an IP-sharing framework
•     Aligning divergent academic and industry objectives
•     Building dedicated technical working groups, project teams, and project management
•     Providing rigorous and comprehensive roadmapping, knowledge mapping, and milestone identification

Current American Chemical Society journal publications from SOFI collaborators: