Planning Activities
The Office of Budget provides an integrated planning approach for EERE that aligns efforts throughout the programs.
In today's climate of heightened expectations and new direction from the administration, EERE's management of its planning is critical. These efforts must be better integrated, more thorough, and take less of managers' increasingly scarce time. To meet these challenges, the Office of Budget is taking an integrated approach to planning, which aligns all of EERE's efforts. Through these activities, the Office will ensure that planning will better inform, and can be better anticipated and prepared for by staff. The results will also provide more consistent, comprehensive information about EERE's direction.
EERE Planning Cycle
The EERE Planning Cycle helps programs develop new and innovative ideas to include in future budget requests. This effort takes budget development beyond incremental funding of ongoing projects and allows EERE to develop new ways to accomplish its mission. This approach allows peers in EERE to help each other share new ideas until the right questions have been answered and they are ready to be proposed for funding.
The Planning Cycle consists of:
- Idea Summit (late October/early November): Programs will propose big new ideas for the new budget and will gather to hear questions and feedback on areas of potential analysis from other programs and EERE leadership. Supporting documents include:
Idea Summit White Paper Template (MS Word 39 KB)
Idea Summit Presentation Template (PowerPoint 518 KB) - Analysis Summit (mid-February): Programs will meet to discuss the results of the analysis on new ideas and receive feedback on how to further bolster the case for these ideas as well as their inclusion in the upcoming budget summit.
- Budget Summit (March): Presentation of budget priorities and justification to office management.
Multiyear Plans
Multiyear plans (MYPs) are a critical strategic document. EERE expects programs to update their MYPs every two to three years. These plans typically have a five-year timeframe and are designed to lay out a program's goals, key strategies, and major milestones. This plan should be written both to communicate to outside groups (such as Congress) and to serve as a planning document for program staff. The Office provides an MYP template, training on developing an MYP, and direct support to programs that are interested. Supporting documents include:
Annual Operating Plans
Annual operating plans (AOPs) are a critical tactical document. Programs develop AOPs to lay out the specific activities and major contracts/partnerships they will pursue in a given fiscal year. This document is designed to help the program align itself and to provide internal stakeholders (such as EERE management and the Office of Management or OMB) with information about each program's intentions for that year.