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2015 U.S. DOE HYDROGEN and FUEL CELLS PROGRAM and VEHICLE

TECHNOLOGIES OFFICE ANNUAL MERIT REVIEW and PEER EVALUATION

MEETING

June 8–12, 2015

DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program

Presentation Instructions and Examples

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Presentation Due Dates and Delivery Information

• Your presentation is due to Alliance Technical Services at h22015amr@alliance-technicalservices.com by April 10, 2015! Please put your Project ID in the Subject Line of your email.

• If your presentation is too large to email, contact Melissa Laffen at (301) 252-3809 for alternative delivery options. A PowerPoint file (saved as a 2010 file or earlier version) is needed; a PDF file in addition is helpful but not sufficient by itself.

• Reviewers will be receiving your presentation prior to the meeting to supply adequate time to review your material.

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Delivery Information (con’t)

• Please name your electronic PowerPoint presentation file using the file name supplied to you in your presentation request email.

• If your presentation includes videos, please submit two versions – one with the videos embedded and one without them. The version without the videos will be used to make the pdf file and should include images in place of the videos. Since the file size of presentations with embedded videos can be large, we will work with you to get them transmitted to us.

• Before sending your file, please do a “save as” – this will minimize the file size.

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Questions?

Contact: •Melissa Laffen at (301) 252-3809 mjlaffen@alliance-technicalservices.com

or

•Rich Bechtold at (443) 812-3921rlbechtold@alliance-technicalservices.com

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General Instructions

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VERY IMPORTANT!• Your presentation is public and will be posted to the

DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program website. You must include the phrase “This presentation does not contain any proprietary, confidential, or otherwise restricted information” on at least the first slide (you may put on all slides if you wish).

• Do not include any proprietary or confidential information. It is your responsibility to ensure that any subcontractor information is not proprietary or confidential.

• Your presentation may not include any slide that has “Official Use Only” or “Sensitive” or any similar wording, or information which your organization might construe as being in such categories.

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VERY IMPORTANT!• Do not use any copyrighted information or graphics

or intellectual property – if you use such information, it must be properly attributed. Do not assume subcontractor information may be used without their approval. Do not assume that information or images published on a website can be used without permission. If you use copyrighted graphics (including copyrighted photos and journal/magazine covers), you must provide written permission along with your submitted file for it to be accepted by the DOE for the purposes of the Review. Intellectual property includes copyrighted material, including documents, logos, photos, scripts, software, and videos or animations of any type; trademarks; service marks; patents; and proprietary or confidential information. Also see the indemnification statement on the last slide.

INDEMNIFICATION FOR INFORMATION ONLY. DO NOT INCLUDE IN PRESENTATION.

By submitting a presentation file to Alliance Technical Services, Inc. for use at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program and Vehicle Technologies Office Annual Merit Review Meeting, and to be provided as hand-out materials, and posting on the DOE’s website, except for employees of the Federal Government and DOE laboratory managing and operating contractors, the presentation authors and the organizations they represent agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Alliance Technical Services, Inc., its officers, employees, consultants and subcontractors; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, Managing and Operating Contractor of the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and the DOE from and against any and all claims, losses, liabilities or expenses which may arise, in whole or in part, from the improper use, misuse, unauthorized use or disclosure, or misrepresentation of any intellectual property claimed by others. Such intellectual property includes copyrighted material, including documents, logos, photos, scripts, software, and videos or animations of any type; trademarks; service marks; patents; and proprietary, or confidential information.

Employees of Federal Government agencies and DOE laboratory managing and operating contractors collectively represent and warrant that they have acquired the rights and/or permission for use of all intellectual property, as listed above and claimed by others, that is needed for developing and submitting a presentation file to Alliance Technical Services, Inc. for use at the DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program and Vehicle Technologies Office Annual Merit Review Meeting, and to be provided as hand-out materials, and posted on the DOE’s website.

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Preparation Instructions

• Oral presenters will be allowed 30 minutes – 20 minutes for the prepared presentation and 10 minutes for questions – time limits will be strictly enforced. Thus, oral presentations should contain a maximum of 15-20 presented slides.

• Except for the time and number of slides requirements, these instructions and examples apply to Poster presentations as well as Oral presentations.

• Evaluation and weighting criteria should be considered when planning and organizing your presentation! (See slide 16.)

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• Poster presentations should use these instructions so that the reviewers have a common basis of comparison to the oral presentations – just bring print-outs of your slides to put on poster boards (except for the Reviewer-Only slides), or you may prepare a large one-sheet poster that includes this information. Note, however, that a regular PowerPoint presentation (saved as a 2010 file or earlier version), with slides sized for viewing on a computer screen, is required to be submitted, even if you plan to present a one-sheet poster.

• While oral presentations are time limited, poster presentations are space limited. The poster boards are approximately 4 feet vertical by 8 feet horizontal. Push pins will be provided for you to display your poster.

Preparation Instructions

Color Choice and Font Size• Use high-contrast, dark colors for both oral

and poster presentations. The oral presentation screens are generally as large as the rooms allow. For posters, the rooms used generally do not have strong lighting and light colors will be difficult to see.

• The following template slides are a good guide to readable font sizes.

• Do not use proprietary fonts. The pdf conversion process will substitute a similar font, but often with unsatisfactory results.

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Use of Logos

• Do NOT use the DOE logo or seal in your presentation.

• Do NOT use the former logo of the Hydrogen Program (pictured below) in your presentation.

• If you use corporate logos for organizations other than your own, secure permission for use.

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Presentation Files

• The PowerPoint file (save as a 2010 file or earlier version) you submit will be used for presentation at the AMR (minus the Reviewer-Only slides).

• All the PowerPoint presentations will be converted to PDF files for the reviewers, for the handout DVD, and for posting to the Web.

• The PDF files will not include PowerPoint animations or videos.

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Overall Presentation Structure• Primary Presentation: These are the slides you will actually be presenting

(in oral session) or showing on your poster.

• Maximum 15 – 20 slides• Please only include work that has taken place since the previous

(2014) AMR.

• Technical Backup Slides: These will be included in the presentation file, but are intended primarily to answer questions or provide supplemental information. These will be included in the meeting proceedings.

• Maximum 5 slides. • Must be placed after main presentation and separated with divider

that says, “Technical Backup Slides”

• Reviewer-only Slides: These will not be included in the meeting proceedings.

• No limit to the number, but should be limited to essential information and not overwhelm the reviewers.

• Must be placed after any “Technical Backup” slides and separated with a divider that says, “Reviewer-only Slides”.

• Reviewer-only slides are not required, but are recommended.

Late Information Addition

• Information that becomes available following the submittal of the presentation but before the Review can be supplied orally at the end of your presentation.

• Additional slides will not be accepted.

• Any additional information must still adhere to the time limitations.

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Evaluation Criteria

• Relevance/Impact 15%

• Approach 20%

• Accomplishments and Progress 45%

• Collaborations 10%

• Proposed Future Work 10%

These criteria and weights should be considered when planning and putting together your

presentation!

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Slide Titles

Except for the mandatory Title, Overview, and Summary slides, all slide titles/headings should

relate directly to the evaluation criteria!(i.e., Project Objectives - Relevance)

Key Results

The key take-home message(s) for each results slide should be communicated as a banner,

header, or bullet (see example slides).

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Instructions for Specific Slides• The following guidelines provide specific information on mandatory slides

and the type of information expected within the criteria guidelines.

• Your presentation should include:• Title Slide (mandatory)• Overview Slide (mandatory)• Review Criterion Slides (mandatory, one or more slides as appropriate

for each review criterion)• Summary Slide (mandatory)• Technical Back-Up slides (optional)• Reviewer-Only slides (not mandatory but recommended)

• The following slides include:Instruction Slide Template Slide (Template is only provided for the Title and Overview slides)

Example Slide (Examples are from high-scoring 2014 AMR presentations)

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Title Slide

• Please include the following information on your Title slide, as shown in the following slide: project title, the name of the principal investigator, the name of the presenter if different from the principal investigator, organization, and project ID# (which will be provided to you by Alliance Technical Services). Also include the statement at the bottom of the following slide: “This presentation does not contain any proprietary, confidential, or otherwise restricted information.”

Instruction

2015 DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Review Presentation Template

(replace with your title)

P. I. Name (always include)

Presenter Name (if not the P.I.)

Organization

Date Project ID #(this will be provided to you)

This presentation does not contain any proprietary, confidential, or otherwise restricted information

Template

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Example

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Example

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Example

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Overview Slide• The purpose of this slide is to provide some context for evaluating your

project and especially your accomplishments.

• Notes on Timeline and Budget:

– Budget: For lab projects, for FY14 the actual amount received should be included; for FY15 the total planned amount should be given, NOT actual to date. Separate lines can be used to differentiate operating versus capital funding. Please confirm values with your DOE manager(s).

– The information in the left column describes the magnitude and timing of the investment in your project. The information in the right column describes the players and the issues that are to be overcome. Note that one example includes the Technical Targets the project is addressing. This is acceptable if it can be done in a concise manner as shown.

– For projects that include multiple partners, please discuss the roles of each and how the overall project is being managed.

Instruction

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• Barriers addressed– (List up to 3 technical barriers and

technical targets from the Fuel Cell Technologies Office Multi-Year Research, Development, and Demonstration Plan addressed by your project (If you do not have them, go to www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/mypp to obtain them))

For Competitively Selected Projects: (lab and non-lab projects)

•Project Start Date: XX/XX/XX•Project End Date: XX/XX/XX•Total Project Budget: $

• Total Recipient Share: $• Total Federal Share: $• Total DOE Funds Spent*: $

* As of 3/31/15 

For Non-Competitively Selected Projects: (lab projects funded annually through AOP

process; see Notes to this slide):•Project Start Date: XX/XX/XX•FY14 DOE Funding (if applicable): $ •FY15 Planned DOE Funding (if applicable): $•Total DOE Funds Received to Date: $

Timeline and Budget Barriers

• Interactions/ collaborations• Project lead

Partners

OverviewTemplate

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Example

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Example

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Example

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• Relevance counts for 15% of your total project score.– Relevance to the Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Program includes

contribution to achievement of specific targets and milestones.

• The title of these slides should make it clear that they count toward your project’s relevance!

• Information to include:– Objectives: Describe what you are trying to do, both over the life of

the project and during the current project year (April 2014 – April 2015).

• Your objectives should make clear the relevance of your project to the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program (more information on the Program can be found through this website and its contained links: http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/mission.html).

– The impact your project has had in the last year (since the 2014 AMR) on addressing the barriers identified in the Overview slide and other specific targets and milestones.

RelevanceInstruction

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Example

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Example

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Example

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• Approach counts for 20% of your total project score.• The title of these slides should make it clear that they count

toward your project’s approach!• Describe overall technical approach, focusing on the past

year:– Emphasize unique aspects of your approach and de-emphasize

discussion of equipment used;– How your research over the past year (since the 2014 AMR)

addresses the Program’s technical barriers;– How your project is integrated with other research within the

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program;– Use simple statements so that scientists and engineers, not experts in

your area, can readily understand the explanation of your approach.

• Include the planned milestones and go/no-go decisions for FY15 and FY16 and current status towards them.

(View the PowerPoint “Notes” page for additional instructions)

ApproachInstruction

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Example

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Example

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• Purpose: Describe the most important technical accomplishments and results obtained in the last year.

– Describe the most important technical accomplishments achieved during this reporting period and their significance (from last year’s review to date for existing projects, or progress to date for new projects).

– Include relevant data to support your accomplishments.– Relate the accomplishments to project milestones, barriers, objectives and technical

targets!– Whenever possible, describe the significance of the accomplishments by relating the

results to the appropriate DOE targets and milestones from the Fuel Cell Technologies Office Multi-Year Research, Development, and Demonstration Plan (www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/mypp).

– Only include accomplishments achieved since the last AMR (April 2014 to April 2015).

– Address comments received from reviewers during last year’s AMR, including progress towards addressing those comments

• Accomplishments and Progress counts for 45% of your total project score.

• The title of these slides should make it clear that they count toward your project’s technical accomplishments and progress!

Accomplishments and ProgressInstruction

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• Each slide should include a summary (“take-home”) message, especially those that contain data.

• Benchmark the progress versus FY14 results, when possible.• To assist the reviewers evaluating your work, please include

bullet comments of the key points on each slide.• Include sufficient slides to explain what was done leading to

the technical accomplishments.• However, please limit your slides to the time you have

available – the 20 minute presentation time will be STRICTLY enforced!

• Though your presentation will be in color, it is best to choose colors and data symbols that can be easily distinguished in black and white for those reviewers with hardcopies, and high contrast for best results during projection of the presentation.

Accomplishments and Progress (cont.)Instruction

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• If yours is an on-going project that was reviewed last year, address 1-3 significant questions/ criticisms/recommendations from the previous year’s reviewers’ comments, available at: http://hydrogen.energy.gov/annual_review14_report.html

• Last year’s presentations can be found at: http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/annual_review14_proceedings.html.

• If your project was not reviewed last year, indicate this to ensure that your project score will not reflect missing information.

Accomplishments and Progress: Responses to Previous Year Reviewers’ Comments

Instruction

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Example

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Collaborations

• Collaborations counts for 10% of your total project score.• The title of these slides should make it clear that they

count toward your collaborations!• List your project collaborators, indicating:

– Relationship (i.e., prime, sub, etc.);– Industry, University, Federal laboratory;– Within or outside of the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program;– Extent of the collaboration.

• Describe the quality of the collaborative relationships and their importance in achieving the project’s objectives

Instruction

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Example

Remaining Challenges and Barriers

• Highlight the key remaining challenges and barriers to meeting the project objectives.

• The remaining challenges and barriers should provide justification and support for the future plans in the following slide.

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Instruction

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• Proposed future work counts for 10% of your total project score.– Purpose: Describe and justify your plans for the remainder of this year and

the coming year. – This slide must be completed by projects that are finishing/ed as well.

Describe future plans for the technology/ R&D beyond the DOE-funded project time line. Please specify funding source.

• The title of these slides should make it clear that they count toward your proposed future work!

• Explain what you plan to do during the rest of this year (FY15) and next year (FY16), how you will meet the remaining project goals and objectives, and why the plans are important.

• Be as specific as possible; avoid blanket statements.• Highlight upcoming key milestones.• Address how you will deal with any decision points during that time

and any remaining issues, including any alternative development pathways under consideration to mitigate risk of not achieving milestones.

Proposed Future WorkInstruction

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Example

Technology Transfer Activities

• Include any technology-to-market or technology transfer plans or strategies that you have for the technology.

• Include plans for future funding from alternative sources as well as marketing strategies and options.

• Include any patent, licensing, or potential licensing information.

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Instruction

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• Summarize the key points you wish the reviewers and the audience to take away from your presentation.

• For those projects that are working toward specific technical targets, include a Summary Table summarizing key FY15 technical results compared to FY14 results, and the technical targets.

Mandatory Summary SlideInstruction

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Technical Back-Up Slides(Note: please include this “separator” slide if you are including back-up technical slides (maximum of five).

These back-up technical slides will be available for your presentation and will be included in the DVD and Web

PDF files released to the public.)

Instruction

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Example

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Reviewer-Only Slides(Note: please include this “separator” slide between those to be presented and the “Reviewer-Only” slides. These slides will be removed from the presentation file and the

DVD and Web PDF files.)

Instruction

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Instructions for Reviewer-Only Slides(Not a template slide – for information purposes only)

• The following slides can be included in your submittal for Peer Evaluation purposes, but will not be part of your Oral presentation – they will be provided to reviewers only.

• If you have a Poster presentation, submit the Reviewer-Only slides with your presentation to Alliance Technical Services but do not include them in your presented Poster.

Instruction

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• Address 3-5 of the critical assumptions and/or problems affecting the outcome of your project. Briefly describe the problem as well as potential solutions, both within and beyond the scope of the project.

• Exclude funding issues.

Critical Assumptions and Issues

Note: This slide is for the use of the Peer Reviewers only – it is not to be presented as part of your Oral or Poster presentation. These Reviewer-Only slides will be included in the copy of your presentation that will be made available to the Reviewers.

Instruction

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• List any publications and presentations that have resulted from work on this project.

• Use at least 12-point font.

Note: This slide is for the use of the Peer Reviewers only – it is not to be presented as part of your Oral or Poster presentation. These Reviewer-Only slides will be included in the copy of your presentation that will be made available to the Reviewers.

Publications and PresentationsInstruction

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Questions?

• Contact: Melissa Laffen at (301) 252-3809 mjlaffen@alliance-technicalservices.com

• Or Rich Bechtold at (443) 812-3921 rlbechtold@alliance-technicalservices.com