CMEI intends to issue, on behalf of AFFO, a NOFO titled, “Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT).” This NOFO will seek applications for financial assistance from entities that wish to conduct work in support of AFFO’s focus on emerging chemical technologies. AFFO supports expanding the supply and use of domestic alternative feedstocks to improve supply chain resiliency of U.S. chemical production and to expand domestic manufacturing through technology innovation to lower costs and improve environmental safety of chemical production.

The Storage Design Strategies to Ease Production (STEP) Prize is a $500,000 two-phase competition explicitly designed to identify and foster innovative solutions for novel energy storage technologies. This prize targets a broad spectrum of innovators, including individuals, academic institutions, nonfederal government entities, small businesses, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and other inventors working on nascent or emerging energy storage innovations.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports critical minerals and materials. Critical minerals and materials (CMM) are the building blocks for technologies foundational to U.S. energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness. To build a secure domestic supply of CMMs, DOE aims to support collaborative industry partnerships to prototype and pilot innovative processing technologies that are currently only proven at the bench scale to address CMM challenges in high impact areas.

The High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program is seeking qualified industry partners to participate in high-impact collaborative projects with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories. The HPC4EI program works with a variety of DOE offices to bring national lab computing expertise to industry. The program is highly aligned with DOE’s priorities on true technological breakthroughs including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC [1]).

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to invite proposals for funding from established organizations interested in providing innovative hands-on, in-person manufacturing training and technical assistance to eligible small manufacturing business concerns, under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Empower to Grow Program (formerly known as 7(j) Management and Technical Assistance Program).

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports critical minerals and materials. Critical minerals and materials (CMM) are the building blocks for technologies foundational to U.S. energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness. To build a secure domestic supply of CMMs, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) aims to support collaborative industry partnerships to prototype and pilot innovative processing technologies that are currently only proven at the bench scale to address CMM challenges in high impact areas. The CMM Accelerator program will advance these mid-stage innovations through validation, benchmarking, access to national lab test beds, testing in industry relevant environments, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. The program establishes a pipeline to support technology maturation to ultimately unlock private capital investments. It also will leverage other DOE lab-based activities, such as the Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI Hub) and the Minerals to Materials Supply Chain Research Facility (METALLIC).

The Manufacturing Deployment Office (MDO) is issuing this NOFO to request applications for projects which will develop domestic facilities toward battery materials processing, manufacturing, and recycling. The goals of this program are to strengthen critical domestic manufacturing and supply chains while increasing critical minerals production by up to 15% by 2030 for key critical materials used in batteries and other applications.

The USDA Forest Service is delivering the Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program (Community Wood) to support the Rural Revitalization Technologies 7 U.S.C. Sec. 8113 and Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 Pub. L. 115-334 Sec. 9013, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) Pub. L. 117-58 Div. J Title VI which directly support the installation of thermally led community wood energy systems or development and expansion of innovative wood product facilities. The intent of the Community Wood is to support forest health and stimulate local economies by expanding renewable wood energy use and innovative wood products manufacturing capacity.

DOE announced a request for applications from interdisciplinary teams addressing the Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges to accelerate R&D workflows using novel AI models. DOE is soliciting new FY26 Phase I small team and Phase II large team applications in the following topic areas: advanced manufacturing, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, biotechnology, critical materials, quantum information science, semiconductors and microelectronics, discovery science, and energy.

The Verizon Community Disaster Resilience Innovation Accelerator powered by MassChallenge is designed to identify and support startups developing next-gen solutions that strengthen community resilience before, during, and after natural disasters. Building on the capabilities of Verizon Frontline and Verizon Innovation Labs, this program invites innovators to create technologies that provide preemptive warnings, hazard mitigation, and robust connectivity in the face of natural disaster events, leveraging Verizon’s 5G expertise to protect lives and strengthen community resilience.