The climate cohort of the Hub Fellowship is a 10-week, full-time, paid program that trains engineers, scientists, technologists, and business experts who already understand climate how to better apply their ideas to policy. Jointly hosted by the Aspen Tech Policy Hub and the Aspen Institute’s Energy and Environment Program, the first climate cohort is tentatively scheduled from June 2 to August 12, 2022. The program will be a mixture of in-person and online learning, pending COVID-19 restrictions. Applicants of all backgrounds with technical expertise in climate change are eligible to apply. Admitted applicants receive an $18,000 stipend to enable their participation.

Together with Clean Energy Trust, Nicor Gas is proud to support the launch of the Nicor Gas Multicultural Innovator Award – a $25,000 equity and inclusion grant to support the development of a clean energy technology startup with a minority founder or CEO. In addition to the grant, recipients of the inaugural award – part of Clean Energy Trust’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiative – will receive 12 months of business mentorship and heightened exposure to investors and customers. Entrepreneurs and businesses making a positive environmental impact throughout the state will be considered.

Small Illinois businesses, or those with a substantial presence in the state, with a focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart buildings and cities, energy storage, water, ag-tech, digital solutions for operational efficiencies, reduced maintenance costs, customer engagement and/or worker training and management may be eligible to apply for the award. Other company criteria include:

• Founder or CEO who identifies as Black, Indigenous and/or person of color
• 2-12 full-time employees
• No more than $3 million in funding raised; must be able to demonstrate at least three to six months of funding runway
• Can be product or service-based; does not need to be market-ready, but is preferred

Evergreen Climate Innovations is on a mission with the U.S. Bank Foundation to support underserved and underrepresented cleantech entrepreneurs. The U.S. Bank Foundation Cleantech Inclusion Award is a grant awarded to entrepreneurs who are female and/or people of color and who are building innovative companies that benefit the environment, create jobs, and drive economic development.

The primary purpose of CalSEED is to address a critical funding gap in the early stages of the energy technology development pipeline. Most entrepreneurs and researchers require multiple rounds of funding over several years to successfully commercialize their new energy invention. To obtain this sustained, long-term funding – either through private capital or large government grants—entrepreneurs and researchers must first demonstrate that their concept is feasible.

CalSEED provides small funding awards to help California entrepreneurs, researchers and businesses prove out the feasibility of new scientific concepts for energy applications. These small funding awards, along with support services, provide a launch pad to help entrepreneurs be successful in their clean energy ventures.

MassCEC’s Catalyst and Diversity in Cleantech – Early-Stage (DICES) Programs provide grants of up to $65,000 to researchers and early-stage companies looking to demonstrate initial prototypes of their clean energy technologies. The Programs are jointly administered by MassCEC and MassVentures with the primary intent of stimulating the commercialization of clean energy technologies developed in the Commonwealth. Awarded funds are used to demonstrate the feasibility of technologies in specific industry applications in order to obtain increased industry and investor interest. Recipients must use funding for projects that move their technologies towards commercialization.  This includes gathering initial data to demonstrate proof of concept, how the technology compares to existing technologies and competitive advantages of the technology or to develop a prototype for the technology.

The FORGE Product Development Grant (FPDG) is non-dilutive funding awarded to a startup(s) to support the development of a physical product. This Supply Chain Disruption offering is dedicated specifically to remedying the effects of global supply chain disruptions on cleantech oriented startup companies.

The goal of the grant is to remove barriers to scale and manufacturing, providing the necessary funds for disruption driven redesigns, or to offset part markups driven by disruptions, or to build critical inventory as a guard against future disruptions, or other creative solutions to mitigating disruptions.

This grant will range between $5k-$25k, and must be used by the winning startup(s) to address a specific supply chain challenge, informed by an accompanying quote and/or work order.

ETIPP employs a community-driven approach to identify and plan strategic clean energy and energy resilience solutions that address a community’s specific challenges. This approach leverages the experience and expertise of local community leaders, residents, and organizations with the ETIPP partner network. The ETIPP partner network connects selected communities with regional nonprofit or academic organizations, energy experts at DOE research institutions, and DOE offices to navigate options for addressing local clean energy and energy resilience challenges.

By participating in ETIPP, communities receive substantial support from ETIPP experts in the form of technical assistance on energy analysis and planning (see Technical Assistance below). Each community is also supported by an ETIPP regional partner that can assist with identifying and developing a community’s needs and goals.

Venture For ClimateTech (V4C) is a program under the For ClimateTech (FCT) umbrella and is powered by NextCorps and SecondMuse and supported by NYSERDA. V4C is focused on helping to advance energy, food & agriculture, buildings, and transportation as key strategic areas for the New York State climate tech landscape.

V4C is currently looking for solutions in the following challenge areas: Future of Cities, Women in ClimateTech, and Web3 & ClimateTech

mHUB is looking for early-stage startups working on hardtech and infrastructure solutions in renewable energy, hydrogen, carbon capture & sequestration, energy storage, vehicle-to-grid, heat sink technologies, distributed energy resources, sustainable buildings and the internet of energy. When accepted to the program you will get the following value:

• An estimated $1M investment in the cohort, comprised of $75K in cash for each startup through a SAFE in exchange for 6% equity, and a minimum of $200K from the program’s corporate partners in the form of convertible notes (funds will be distributed based on partners’ discretion and may not be shared by entire cohort).
• Follow on investment opportunities from mHUB’s Product Impact Fund to support portfolio teams’ future rounds.
• Become part of mHUB, one of the nation’s leading hardtech innovation and manufacturing centers. You will join an ecosystem of more than 1,000 hardtech entrepreneurs and innovators, an active investor network, seasoned industry mentors, regional manufacturers and suppliers, and our hardtech product development community.
• Access to our $6M prototyping, manufacturing and testing workshop, along with technical staff and training.
• Cash equivalent credits towards hardtech development services ($30K per startup), 24-month mHUB membership ($34K value per startup), as well as multiple other services
• Support from our engaged and invested partners Invenergy, Nicor Gas / Southern Company, Evergreen Climate Innovations and legal partner Perkins Coie