The Climate Change Investment Initiative (2c2i) is a 10-year, $20 million, joint commitment between Exelon Corporation and its philanthropic arm, Exelon Foundation, to invest in and cultivate innovative start-ups focused on advancing climate change mitigation, adaptation and resiliency efforts, while also promoting social equality and economic prosperity, in Exelon’s service territories. Through the combined resources of Exelon Foundation ($10 million equity investment commitment) and Exelon Corporation (up to $10 million in-kind service commitment), 2c2i supports innovative start-ups that catalyze solutions to climate change challenges within Exelon’s major market areas, while advancing social equality and economic prosperity. Specifically, we’re looking for startups focused on any aspect of sustainability (e.g. GHG mitigation, climate resiliency, etc.), that are currently doing work, or have the potential to do work, that impacts any of Exelon Corporation’s six major markets—Atlantic City, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Wilmington, DE.

The Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize is designed to encourage coalition-building in communities across the country that focus on creating quality jobs and fostering an equitable and inclusive workforce in clean energy sectors.  Each coalition is required to include, at a minimum, one coalition representative from each of the five key stakeholder groups below:

1. Labor organizations
2. Clean energy employers
3. Community-based organizations
4. Public agencies
5. Education and workforce providers

These competing coalitions will develop and implement Coalition Action Plans that improve the quality of and expand access to good jobs in clean energy.

The NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award (TRAILBLAZER) program supports individual investigators who propose novel research projects with the potential to innovatively and creatively address national needs and/or grand challenges, advance US leadership, and catalyze the convergence of engineering and science domains. TRAILBLAZER will support engineers and scientists who leverage their distinctive track record of innovation and creativity to pursue new research directions that are distinct from their previous or current research areas.

NSF-supported science and engineering research increasingly relies on cutting-edge infrastructure. With its Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program and Major Multi-user Facilities (“Major Facilities”) projects, NSF supports infrastructure projects at the lower and higher range of infrastructure project costs, Foundation-wide, across science and engineering research disciplines. The Foundation-wide Mid-scale Research Infrastructure opportunity is intended to provide NSF with an agile, Foundation-wide process to fund experimental research capabilities in the mid-scale range between MRI and Major Multi-user Facilities.

This solicitation will fund up to $10.6 million of projects that address several major areas of need for floating offshore wind, including innovation in ports and vessels, transmission technology, and uncrewed underwater vehicles for environmental monitoring. NOWRDC intends to support projects in partnership with the best research and innovation organizations to achieve maximum impact. Proposals are welcomed from all geographic locations within the United States, with additional eligibility parameters outlined in the Request for Proposals (RFP).

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) program and Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, through a Partnership Intermediary Agreement with ENERGYWERX, announced the Innovative Queue Management Solutions (iQMS) for Clean Energy Interconnection and Energization program. This program will award $11.2 million to no more than 25 distribution utilities to pilot innovative solutions for managing renewable energy and electric vehicle (EV) charging interconnection and energization queues. The iQMS program will fund pilot projects to demonstrate new interconnection queue management solutions on actual interconnection, service load request, and energization queues. These tests will help utilities and public utility commissions understand the real-world capabilities of new software and workflow automation solutions and accelerate their adoption to enable rapid deployment of more solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, EV charging infrastructure, and other clean energy assets to the grid. Participating utilities will document and share lessons learned and best practices from their pilot projects to help other utilities manage similar interconnection and energization requests.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) announced the Offshore Wind National and Regional Research and Development Funding Opportunity, which will award $48.6 million for projects that address several major areas of need for offshore wind. The areas include accelerating research and development of floating offshore wind platforms; exploring innovations for fixed-bottom foundations; improving offshore wildlife protection through new monitoring technologies; expanding the reach of the domestic supply chain; advancing U.S. academic leadership in floating offshore wind; and investigating solutions to protect future infrastructure from lightning.

The Catalyst Program is designed to stimulate economic growth and inspire partnerships that improve rural economic vitality across the four-state NBRC region. NBRC encourages projects that take a creative approach to addressing an economic need or opportunity in the region, alleviate economic distress, and contribute to economic growth. Successful projects support a broad range of economic development initiatives such as, but not limited to, projects that modernize and expand access to public water and wastewater services, revitalize transportation infrastructure, establish workforce development programs and facilities, grow the outdoor recreation economy, and provide access to new childcare and healthcare facilities.

The NSF SBIR/STTR and SBIR/STTR Fast-Track pilot programs support moving scientific excellence and technological innovation from the lab to the market. These NSF SBIR/STTR Fast-Track pilot programs provide fixed amount cooperative agreements for the development of a broad range of technologies based on discoveries in science and engineering with potential for societal and economic impacts. Under a traditional NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I award, a small business can receive non-dilutive funding for research and development (R&D) to demonstrate technical feasibility over 6 to 12 months and then, after completion of a Phase I project, companies may apply for Phase II funding to further develop the proposed technology.

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. The first submission window solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. Voucher Opportunity (VO-4) includes support activities such as:

• Market analysis/research
• Marketing Materials development
• Go to Market strategy
• Product Scale up
• Patent landscape analysis
• Intellectual Property legal support
• and more.

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. The first submission window solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. Voucher Opportunity (VO-3) enables expert assistance to help AHJs and related institutions understand new clean energy technology benefits and challenges, and support the demonstration of these technologies through activities including:

• Evaluating siting and permitting best practices developed by similar jurisdictions,
• Developing streamlined permitting processes,
• Educating first responders and related personnel on technology safety requirements and risks
• Evaluating locality infrastructure/logistical readiness to utilize the designated technologies,
• Supporting community engagement on related issues.