The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $15 million to the Algae Test-bed Public-Private Partnership (ATP3) at Arizona State University. ASU LightWorks is the university partnership that works to combine research into one strategic framework. The combination of both of these entities allows for a framework to address energy issues through collaboration with academic institutions, commercial enterprises, and national laboratories. The Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI) partners with ATP3 and the facilities are located on ASU's Polytechnic campus. Part of NVG's research focuses on a gap analysis of what types of entities to partner with, but thus far partnerships include: the National Laboratories, Cellana LLC, Touchstone Research Laboratory, SRS Energy, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, and Commercial Algae Management. The goal of ATP3 is to create an open and collaborative network in geographically diverse locations, that allow for world-class expertise while addressing flexibility and customer service, as well as IP management within a tiered fee structure. The standard would be that ATP3 address the operational protocols, data collection and analysis, data management, quality control, modeling and assessment, and finally education and training. This allows ATP3 to be a quality testing facility for the algal research community, and the test-bed facilities will be located in Arizona, Hawaii, California, Ohio, and Georgia.

This report details a prioritization value model that was created for the use of Arizona State University and ASU LightWorks in determining and implementing appropriate sustainability projects for removing greenhouse gas emissions. A thorough review regarding the current project selection process, and an extensive analysis into the desired state of the process was conducted for this paper. The newly developed prioritization model includes multiple attributes that rank and prioritize projects based upon the highest value as determined by criteria set forth by the university. Encompassed within this report are the steps in creating the decision model, as well as the benefits and additional uses of the model for the end user. From the analysis and model created, the end user has the ability to choose carbon neutral projects that better align with the vision of the New American University.