The Resilient Infrastructure + Secure Energy (RISE) Consortium™ hosted its “The Future of Resilient Infrastructure and Secure Energy (RISE)” virtual launch event Tuesday afternoon, signaling the future is now for addressing energy security and climate crises. Nearly 300 attendees engaged with an array of energy experts on how industry and the federal government can work together to reimagine:

• How we use, generate, transport, and store energy
• How we build efficient, modern, and resilient infrastructure
• How we scale innovative technologies to accelerate energy security and infrastructure modernization

“The RISE Consortium will serve as a transformational platform for energy and climate collaboration for the U.S. military and the federal government,” said Michael Wu, newly appointed RISE Consortium Executive Director and Co-Founder & Principal of Converge Strategies LLC (CSL). “This event demonstrated how much excitement and opportunity there is for private and public sector innovators to work together, and through the RISE Consortium, we will streamline and accelerate those collaborations for our most urgent energy and climate security challenges.”

Michael Wu and Chris Van Metre, President and CEO of Advanced Technology International (ATI), delivered introductory remarks. They were followed by insightful interviews and panel discussions with various experts from government and industry: Melanie Nakagawa (The White House), Sharon Burke (New America), Kim Carnahan (ENGIE Impact), Iris Ferguson (U.S. Air Force), Mr. Robert Hughes (U.S. Army), Alexina Jackson (The AES Corporation), Paul Stockton (Paul N Stockton LLC), Margaret Jackson (Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center), Dawn Lippert (Elemental Excelerator) and Jon Powers (CleanCapital).

The following discussions featured the aforementioned experts:

• “Climate Resilience” – Why energy and climate are a national security imperative and how the federal government and private sector can accelerate innovation.
• “Operational Energy” – How the aviation industry, the federal government and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) can collaborate for sustainable aviation.
• “Installation Energy” – How industry and the federal government can work together to build efficient, modern and resilient infrastructure.
• Live recording of CleanCapital’s “Experts Only” podcast with Jon Powers and Dawn Lippert – How private industry and the DoD can collaborate to scale innovative technologies to strengthen energy security and accelerate infrastructure modernization.

The complete listing of speakers can be viewed on this web page. Stay tuned for video highlights to be posted on the RISE Consortium’s YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.

“The collective knowledge and enthusiasm from the ‘Future of RISE’ launch event was so encouraging,” said Chris Van Metre. “Collaboration is at the core of the RISE Consortium’s mission, and this event was a great first step towards developing collaborative solutions to national challenges. Under Michael Wu’s leadership, the RISE Consortium is ready to support the federal government in providing innovative solutions to the energy security and climate crises.”

CSL and ATI, the pioneer in R&D collaboration management, have partnered to form the RISE Consortium. Michael Wu is the RISE Consortium’s first executive director. With CSL, he helps build partnerships with the military, civilians, and government to accelerate resilience and security in the clean energy transformation. Wu’s expertise at the nexus of clean energy, resilience, and national security has been built by a diverse career across government and industry. He has held leadership positions with the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the Truman National Security Project.

The RISE Consortium is dedicated to energy and climate action for the U.S. government. Currently, there is no cost to join this transformational platform to connect to the energy and climate innovation ecosystems. To join, please visit this web page.

About ATI

ATI, a nonprofit based in Summerville, S.C., builds and manages collaborations that conduct research and development of new technologies to solve our nation’s most pressing challenges. Fueled by a community of experts from industry, academia, and government, ATI uses the power of collaboration to help the federal government quickly acquire novel technologies. ATI manages both Other Transaction Agreement (OTA)-based and Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR)-based collaborations, many of which are for the Department of Defense.