What does REACH stand for? 

The United States and international partners propose to form a global clean hydrogen Network of Networks (NoN): Research and Education Accelerated by Connections in Clean Hydrogen (REACH₂).

Why network of networks?

The challenge with the current research in H₂ technologies is that it is most typically conducted by either purely experimental studies (e.g., synthesis or fabrication, physical/chemical characterization, and electrochemical testing), or by modeling and simulation (e.g. performance modeling or degradation modeling). The work is usually conducted in individual labs or in bi-lateral, or rarely, multi-lateral collaborations (typically local and regional, or very rarely multi-continental), with limited amount of materials, data, capabilities and access to facilities. Such uncoordinated research, with limited data sets, may lead to possible misled results or incomplete studies, stalling our progress.

Progress is further impeded because expertise and discoveries are not being shared. Processes are not automated, standardized or coordinated, and results and data are not widely sharable and usable, but disseminated almost exclusively through journal publications and conference presentations. Meaningful progress is being achieved but it is slow, hampered by redundancies, waste of resources and inclusive results. In addition, the accelerated progress of the field suffers from a limited pool of trained workforce, disparate training, and localized and unsystematic transfer of knowledge and skills.