Breakthrough Energy Fellows (BEF) flagship program, the Innovator Fellowship, is designed to accelerate the development of promising early-stage climate technologies. The Fellowship is a full-time commitment for innovators committed to commercializing their climate technology. Typically, Innovator projects have raised less than $2,000,000 in dilutive funding and are legally incorporated prior to program start date of September 2024.

The Explorers Fellowship offers funding for developing breakthrough climate solutions that are earlier stage, higher technical risk, and may not yet be ready to incorporate. Explorers’ projects are typically in a university lab or research entity, and are overseen by professors, faculty members, or full-time researchers who can remain in position for this part-time opportunity.

Powered by Launch Tennessee, InvestTN manages two equity capital programs totaling $58M for Tennessee-located early-stage startups: Regional Seed Fund and Technology Fund. Startups at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A or B stages are eligible for an initial investment of $25k to $3M.

Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the Southeast’s only entrepreneurial research and development program based at a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory. Innovation Crossroads supports and mentors entrepreneurial researchers whose early-stage innovations are presently too challenging or technically uncertain to pursue in a venture capital-financed startup. Innovators are selected for the program through an annual competition. Innovation Crossroads embeds innovators at ORNL for up to two years for entrepreneurial mentorship and to conduct cooperative research and development with the intention of incubating and translating innovations from proof-of-concept to proof-of-product.

Telluride Venture Network is creating a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem with services typically unavailable in rural communities.

Launched in 2013, TVN is a nationally recognized, award-winning entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports new, innovative and growing businesses by providing capital funds, mentorship programs, acceleration bootcamps, networking sessions, and project demonstrations.

The Innovation Hot Spot program provides five years of corporate, personal income, and sales tax incentives to qualifying tech or manufacturing companies. These eligible companies receive entrepreneurial services during their enrollment through The Tech Garden as the regional Innovation Hot Spot, or through our incubator partners, to help companies grow in Central New York.

Early-stage clean energy entrepreneurs face challenges in accessing testing facilities as they progress towards commercialization. The CalTestBed Initiative is a voucher program that assists clean energy entrepreneurs in gaining access to critical testing facilities. It expedites their pathway to commercialization through connection to a network of next-level partners.

The DOE Office of Technology Transitions Lab MATCH (Laboratory Making Advanced Technology Commercialization Harmonized) Prize is a $620K, three-phase competition aimed to accelerate national laboratory intellectual property (IP) licensing and commercialization. Lab MATCH provides an opportunity for innovators and entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds to work directly with national labs and their researchers to accelerate technology commercialization.

Participating national labs include:

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
• Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

We’re looking for world-changing climate tech startups with significant climate impact potential, addressing billion-dollar markets bringing innovations in hard science, hardware, software and business models to the world. If accepted, you’ll take part in our virtual, 18-month accelerator program.

We’re here to help you accelerate the path to commercialization and bridge the gaps to access the financing and resources you need to succeed. We do so by connecting the world’s most promising climate tech startups—like yours—with Third Derivative’s network of committed investors, corporate partners, market experts, and mentors.

The goal of the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is to prepare graduate students for science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission, by providing graduate thesis research opportunities at DOE laboratories.  The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students (US citizens or lawful permanent residents) to pursue part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE laboratory/facility in areas that address scientific challenges central to the Office of Science mission. The research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students’ overall doctoral thesis while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE laboratories/facilities.

Are you a company (for-profit entity) who received support from DOE through a research, development, and/or demonstration financial assistance agreement or prize program in the last 5 years? This opportunity is designed to provide additional support in the form of a voucher for help with market assessment, business plan formulation, fundraising road-mapping (from both public and private sources), and commercialization strategy.

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners and third-party voucher providers to advance commercialization of innovative energy technologies. Voucher Opportunity (VO-4) includes market research, business plans, fundraising road-mapping (from both public and private sources), and other commercialization strategy assistance for companies who have received funding from DOE’s RD&D programs. The first submission window (Sept 26) solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. A second submission window (Nov 7) will be open soon to solicit requests from potential voucher recipients.

States, local governments, tribes, and other Authority Having Jurisdictions (AHJs) interested in learning about and facilitating clean energy demonstration project siting and permitting processes should take advantage of this voucher opportunity. This opportunity is designed to help AHJs streamline siting and permitting processes to advance commercialization and demonstration of innovative clean energy technologies.

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners and third-party voucher providers to advance commercialization of innovative energy technologies. Voucher Opportunity (VO-3) enables expert assistance to help AHJs understand new clean energy technology benefits and challenges, evaluate siting and permitting best practices developed by similar jurisdictions, develop streamlined permitting processes, and support community engagement on related issues. The first submission window (Sept 26) solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. A second submission window (Nov 7) will be open soon to solicit requests from potential voucher recipients.

Are you a company (for-profit entity) who is working to commercialize or demonstrate in a large energy infrastructure system a clean energy prototype/product? This opportunity is designed to provide support in the form of a voucher to obtain Performance Validation, Modeling, and Certification Support, including failure-mode studies, testing to obtain industry-relevant certifications, system performance modeling, digital twin development, and other real-world testing environments.

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners and third-party voucher providers to advance commercialization and demonstration at scale of innovative energy technologies. Voucher Opportunity (VO-2) enables evaluation of technology performance under certification-relevant operating conditions, accelerated lifetime testing to test for failure modes, and access to advanced modeling and digitization resources. The first submission window (Sept 26) solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. A second submission window (Nov 7) will be open soon to solicit requests from potential voucher recipients. Pending availability of funds, additional submission windows may open in the future.