Investing in the next generation of founders and climate innovations to achieve a rapid and just climate transition. Opening doors for founders building a better, more sustainable tomorrow.

Empower Innovation has a searchable directory of public and private funding opportunities curated for empower innovation users. It is an initiative of the California Energy Commission.

Enter one or more of this year’s challenges for the chance to win cash prizes and move on to the finals, where our panel of judges will decide on the grand prize winner!

Upcoming challenges include:

• Reuse, Recycle, Revamp (May 1 – June 12):
• Hack it Back (June 12 – July 24)
• Climate Resilient Communities (July 24 – September 4)
• Save the World Wildcard (September 4 – October 16)

Prizes include: 1st place – $50,000 + Supplyframe DesignLab Residency, 2nd place –  $20,000, 3rd place – $15,000, 4th place – $10,000,5th place – $5,000. Top 50 finalists will win $500.

We will provide approximately 200 buildings worth of time-series data from the RTEM database. This database supports key commercial real estate stakeholders and market influencers in identifying, prioritizing and implementing energy conservation, decarbonization and electrification opportunities.

We seek submissions that propose novel use cases for the provided data set. Be creative. Ideal submissions are those use cases that positively impact or accelerate the electrification and decarbonization of New York State commercial and multi-family buildings.

1 Hotels Fellows will work in partnership with NRDC’s Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) program to identify pressing environmental issues and needs across the country, and then organize and execute projects that help communicate and amplify the business and economic case for smart policies to address these issues. Fellowships are restricted to early or mid-career professionals. Fellows will be chosen by a committee of seasoned entrepreneurs and environmental leaders, including members of E2’s national network of business leaders and NRDC’s environmental experts.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $40 million for fundamental mathematics research on problems of interest to the DOE that require the integration of multiple mathematical topic areas. The Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Centers (MMICCs) supported by this funding opportunity will enable five-year, multi-institutional collaborations for cross-cutting mathematics. Pre-application deadline is May 17.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced $26 million for research to advance scientific data management and visualization. Foundational research in data management will address challenges stemming from the increasingly massive data sets produced by scientific experiments and supercomputers. Innovative and intuitive data visualization approaches will support scientific discovery, decision-making, and communication based on that data. Pre-application deadline is May 10.

With support from Capital One’s Impact Initiative and funded (in part) through a grant with the U.S. Small Business Administration, 2Gether-International (2GI) is launching an accelerator focused on DMV founders with disabilities of early-stage startups in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia (DMV). This accelerator will support ~25 disabled founders (virtually) to learn about key areas of business including product-market fit, management, sales, marketing, financial projections, and negotiations. Throughout this program, founders will engage with world-class speakers and be supported by accredited leadership coaches to further develop their startups.

Enduring Planet offers rapid financing without dilution, personal guarantees, or collateral. Specifically, this organization backs impactful teams working across mitigation, removal, adaptation and resilience.

Enduring Planet prioritizes investing in underrepresented founders, diverse teams, and companies serving marginalized communities.

This 12-week, in-person incubator program provides mentorship, access to prototyping services, training workshops, and partnership opportunities. The program will take place in Knoxville, TN and stipends are provided to defray travel and living costs. Up to six companies will be accepted for the next cohort. Apply by April 11.

Apply to a new program from the DOE related to community-scale climate research. Research will focus on three tightly related scientific topics—atmospheric and environmental observations; modeling of climate change and impacts across urban regions; and simulating the climate benefits of deploying climate solutions and technologies in historically underserved communities across the U.S.

Urban IFLs will require multi-disciplinary teams that bring together the skills and talents of investigators from multiple research institutions. Academic and nonprofit research institutions, national laboratories, other federal agencies, and the private sector are all eligible to apply as Urban IFL team members. The lead organization of each proposed Urban IFL team must be an academic institution or a national laboratory. Locally-based team members and minority serving institutions (MSI) are expected to have significant roles in each Urban IFL.

Funding is to be awarded competitively and is expected to be in the form of five-year awards. The Department anticipates that $17 million will be available for this program in 2022. Requests should not exceed $5,000,000 per year.

At Women in Cleantech & Sustainability (WCS), we are committed to ensuring that those who are seeking to make an impact in the cleantech and sustainability industries have the ability to access opportunities through our programs and network. Women in Cleantech & Sustainability is excited to create the WCS Scholarship Membership which is designed to open doors and strengthen access into the cleantech and sustainability conversations and to allow new members the opportunity to grow their careers and create their positive impact on the green economy. Benefits:

• WCS Chapter Membership valued at $147/year
• Access to WCS Mentorship Program application
• Access to all WCS Virtual Events free
• Access to a network and community of women in diverse fields of work