Government programs and the evolution of tomorrow's technologies

Tim Avampato

As the director of strategic partnerships and innovation, Tim works with business leaders from across Eaton and an extensive network of external partners to uncover, evaluate and secure investments for technology-driven growth opportunities.

Tim joined Eaton in 2011 as part of the strategic partnerships and innovation team leading the development of technology programs, partnerships and government funded R&D initiatives. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Florida. He also holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

Prior to joining Eaton, Tim led the development of advanced technology products and government R&D programs at Raytheon Technologies and PPG Industries.

Bryan Farrens

Bryan is a director of government programs at Eaton. He has been with Eaton for 19 years developing technologies through collaboration with government funding agencies and leading-edge technology partners.  Bryan has led the development of government funded programs in the areas of grid resiliency, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and digital design. 

Prior to joining Eaton Bryan was a Navy submarine nuclear officer and holds degrees in aerospace engineering, advanced mathematics and nuclear engineering. 

WOMAN: Welcome to Eaton's 10 in 10 podcast, where we focus on industry trends shaping the future of power management. In this series, our expert answers 10 questions about one of today's most talked about industry topics in 10 minutes or less. From the energy transition to digital transformation and beyond, we explore trends and discuss strategies for delivering safer, more efficient, and reliable power.

MARYANN WILSON: The demand for clean and reliable power is growing at an exponential rate. The shift to renewables, electrification of vehicles and aircraft, and pressures to adopt more sustainable practices are requiring companies to push the boundaries of what's possible across the industry. I'm joined by Tim Avampato, Director of Innovations and Partnerships, and Bryan Farrens, Director of Government Programs, to talk about how Eaton engages with governments when it comes to grants and innovation, and how government research and innovation teams play a pivotal role in advancing crucial technologies for global decarbonization. We have 10 questions in 10 minutes.

Tim and Bryan, thank you both for joining us today. Tim, let's kick off the conversation with what government strategic partnerships and innovation teams do.

TIM AVAMPATO: Thank you, Maryann. The Strategic Partnership and Innovation team is a corporate function. Our team is comprised of members with diverse technical backgrounds, knowledge of technology, market, government trends, and fields that are relevant to Eaton.

So within our organization, we provide leadership and work with technology business organizations across the enterprise to provide expertise related to R&D agency needs, competitive landscapes, partnerships, government R&D funding mechanisms.

MARYANN WILSON: That sounds like a crucial role and quite essential considering the rate at which technologies continue to evolve.

TIM AVAMPATO: Yes, that's right. More simply put, our team helps Eaton compete for and win government R&D funding to accelerate new technology and new product introductions.

MARYANN WILSON: And maybe leaning into that a little bit more, can you talk about why these types of partnerships are essential for tackling the complex challenges that we're seeing today?

TIM AVAMPATO: Absolutely. Our main customers in the US are primarily the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and in Europe, the European Union and European government R&D organizations. These agencies invest billions of annually to accelerate the development of technologies and solutions that advance economic growth, defense, social, economic, and policy goals. These programs aim to advance beyond the state-of-the-art to develop transformational technologies, leading to commercial solutions that can have a broad impact on these goals.

Successful R&D programs bring together top researchers in government, industry, and academia to solve the most difficult technology challenges. This focus on grand challenges allows Eaton to secure funding for some of our most high-risk, disruptive technology programs. It's a highly competitive landscape and only the most capable teams and most aggressive R&D goals are selected for awards.

MARYANN WILSON: Yeah, that collaboration sounds like a key component to success.

TIM AVAMPATO: Yes, these programs and partnerships augment and really accelerate Eaton's research efforts with external funding, access to the capabilities, and advanced technologies that are being developed by world class research institutions that we collaborate with across the globe.

MARYANN WILSON: Yeah, that's really fascinating. So, Bryan, why does Eaton pursue government funds for research and development programs?

BRYAN FARRENS: Well, Maryann, the government and Eaton have overlapping interests in research and development. And what we can do is leverage our internal research and development funding and add government funds so that we can deliver a better quality solution faster. So, for example, Eaton has a current program with the US Department of Energy Building Technology Office. And in that program, we are integrating modular, low-cost energy storage into our UPS solutions at locations like data centers, which adds both resiliency and grid services.

MARYANN WILSON: And with significant and transformations in AI, data centers, in particular, are certainly seeing the need for these types of technologies.

BRYAN FARRENS: Exactly, and the funding can also be used to access partnerships and new technologies, capture customers through government endorsement, and in some cases, the government is an end customer so we're exploring new markets.

MARYANN WILSON: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And in that same realm, what kind of value do these types of partnerships with Eaton provide to those government funding agencies?

BRYAN FARRENS: So what we're able to provide and the value we bring comes in four major areas. One is technology leadership, where our 100-plus years of experience delivering these power management solutions really sets us apart. Two, governments have challenging policy goals in areas such as resiliency and sustainability and need companies like Eaton to develop and commercialize products that will meet these goals. Three is economic development, where our history of developing quality jobs in engineering and manufacturing are critical to economic growth in areas we are developing and manufacturing solutions. And then lastly, operational efficiency, where decades of successful partnerships with government agencies provides confidence within the government funding agencies that we can deliver.

MARYANN WILSON: Yeah, it seems quite clear that these partnerships are mutually beneficial.

BRYAN FARRENS: We like to think so. MARYANN WILSON: Tim, shifting gears a little bit, can we talk about how we choose what types of programs to pursue?

TIM AVAMPATO: Yes, certainly. The process for pursuing government programs usually starts with a proactive pursuit, where we reach out to government funding offices to discuss overlapping areas of interest and to begin developing program ideas. Government releases solicitations for proposals, ideally with input from Eaton, on technology areas of focus, but not always. We review the solicitations for overlapping competencies, research interests, areas for Eaton to differentiate and develop good probabilities to win. If we decide to pursue an opportunity, we create a proposal development team with technology, business development, and contracts personnel in place to support.

MARYANN WILSON: And once we're selected for an award, what type of collaboration are we expecting when working on US government programs? Bryan, you want to take this one?

BRYAN FARRENS: Sure. A typical program has somewhere between two and five partners. These partners are often a combination of universities, non-competing businesses, and government national laboratories with world-leading expertise in the funded area. We also often partner with OEMs, utilities, and other Eaton customers, putting together teams on the competencies needed to both develop the technology and demonstrate the solution.

So, for example, an electrical program might include utility customer partners, where we can access their sites to deploy and demonstrate new technologies. Vehicle programs might include an OEM customer so that we can retrofit a vehicle. But in both of these cases, an obvious benefit of government programs is that they allow us to partner with customers and demonstrate new technology to them as it is being developed.

MARYANN WILSON: Which again appears to also be advantageous to the end user.

BRYAN FARRENS: Yes, this allows us to get early insights also from customers about what they would like to see in new technologies.

MARYANN WILSON: What about globally? Does the collaboration look different when we're working with European Union partners and governments?

BRYAN FARRENS: Some European programs, particularly the national programs, are similar in size and partners with US programs. However, programs run by the European Commission can be very large consortium, with 20 to 30 partners, that are critical to the development and commercialization of leading-edge technologies. For example, on a vehicle program, you might have several vehicle OEMs and several competitors all working together on the same program, but to explore a collection of technologies that will be evaluated by the OEMs.

MARYANN WILSON: Much larger in collaboration size in comparison to a US program?

BRYAN FARRENS: Yes, but one important issue to note on both US and European programs is the importance of intellectual property. In all cases, any intellectual property that we develop will be owned by Eaton.

MARYANN WILSON: That's incredibly significant.

BRYAN FARRENS: That's right. Particularly for government-funded research programs, developing and owning intellectual property creates a significant technology advantage for Eaton.

MARYANN WILSON: Digging a little deeper, Tim, can you give an example of government programs and the type of growth that they create?

TIM AVAMPATO: Sure. Eaton has been performing on government R&D programs for nearly two decades, and the impact has been felt across all of our businesses. Over the past 10 years, these programs have produced $1 billion of organic growth.

The microgrid controller, wildfire mitigation products, many energy management solutions, for example, have been developed with support of our partnership and funding from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Our power distribution controls and assemblies division is moving towards commercializing a next generation of medium voltage motor drive that has significantly higher performance than anything currently available in the market.

In the industrial sector, our heavy-duty EV transmission, developed with the Army Ground Vehicle System Center, is a new product that helps increase range, great capability, and acceleration for commercial electric vehicles. And a program funded by the US Air Force is helping aerospace to develop a replacement for the F-16 hydrazine-powered emergency power unit, solving the F-16s most significant sustainability issue, and creating over $100 million in growth opportunities for retrofits and aftermarket.

MARYANN WILSON: Wow, so really moving the needle, in regard to electrification, for example, the increased efficiency and reliability to help develop these next generation vehicles.

TIM AVAMPATO: Oh, exactly.

MARYANN WILSON: And more sustainably, too.

TIM AVAMPATO: Yeah, that's right.

MARYANN WILSON: And what about a program in the EU?

TIM AVAMPATO: Well, there's several areas where European governments are investing much more than in the US. Some of those, like clean aviation, energy storage, DC distribution, have allowed us to create research programs that are important for meeting the regional goals in Europe, but also creating growth opportunities in these emerging markets.

As Bryan mentioned, R&D programs in Europe typically involve large numbers of partner organizations, and Eaton gets a chance to work directly with customers on new technology programs. So programs in Europe have led to new electrical distribution technologies demonstrated in automotive OEM factories, collaboration on R&D programs with major aerospace OEMs, and a second life battery demonstration at the largest utility in Europe. Now, these markets are developing more slowly in the US, but these programs allow us to be ready with competitive, customer-validated solutions when those markets develop.

MARYANN WILSON: Again, sustainable from both the resources and process standpoint.

TIM AVAMPATO: Yes, absolutely. Our team in Europe is growing, setting year-over-year records for new government program wins.

MARYANN WILSON: That's great Bryan, to close up our conversation today, what are some of the exciting trends you see emerging with technology and innovations of the future?

BRYAN FARRENS: What is particularly exciting to see, Maryann, is how well Eaton's growth strategy is aligned with emerging areas of innovation. Technologies in the area of energy transition, sustainability, and the digital future are some of the largest government-funded areas in the US and Europe. But as a whole, electrification of transportation, buildings, and industry, including the impact on the grid, is the one area where we are seeing the biggest investment by government funding agencies.

MARYANN WILSON: It's great to hear that Eaton's growth strategy is so well aligned with the key areas of innovation.

BRYAN FARRENS: Yes, the future looks very promising.

MARYANN WILSON: Awesome. Well, that concludes today's10 in 10 episode. Tim and Bryan, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate your time and the insights that you've shared with us today.

BRYAN FARRENS: Thanks, Maryann.

TIM AVAMPATO: Thank you, Maryann, and we really appreciate the opportunity to talk about our work.

MARYANN WILSON: To learn more about how we're advancing state of the art technologies for a more sustainable future, visit us at eaton.com/governmentresearch.