The Solutions for Lasting, Viable Energy Infrastructure Technologies (SOLVE IT) Prize aims to empower communities to identify and implement innovative clean energy solutions in a way that works for their unique needs and challenges. The prize will award competitors with a demonstrated history of productive work with communities. Competitors will work collaboratively with stakeholders interested in community-scale (neighborhood-, town-, or city-scale) planning around clean energy to engage their communities, build a network of support for clean energy or decarbonization projects, and develop plans for carrying out these projects.

We’re a hands-on lab for tech providers, developers, educators, & researchers committed to fostering resilient cities by cross-pollinating ideas, pioneering new technologies, & democratizing data. Are you a start-up, established tech provider, tech developer, researcher, educator, real estate owner or operator? We invite you to join us in the pursuit of sustainable solutions for our cities.

Introducing the nf.c Climate Lab: a semi-annual, no-cost incubator program designed to spark growth for organizations building a healthier planet. The nf.c Climate Lab is an opportunity for climate organizations to learn expert growth marketing strategies for the climate industry while building internal growth marketing capacity for your team. Most importantly, you’ll receive 1:1 consulting support from nf.c (valued at $2,500) at no cost.

The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Program is designed to encourage development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative approaches to STEM graduate education training. The program seeks proposals that a) explore ways for graduate students in STEM master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers, or b) support research on the graduate education system and outcomes of systemic interventions and policies. IGE projects are intended to generate the knowledge required for the customization, implementation, and broader adoption of potentially transformative approaches to graduate education. The program supports piloting, testing, and validating novel models or activities and examining systemic innovations with high potential to enrich and extend the knowledge base on effective graduate education approaches. The program addresses both workforce development, emphasizing broad participation, and institutional capacity-building needs in graduate education.

The challenge seeks to support scalable youth-led solutions that:

• Reduce the impacts of climate change, and/or empower others to act on climate change
• Address root causes of the issue
• Demonstrate ability to drive impact and potential to scale
• Collaborate with others to accelerate or broaden impact
• Utilize innovative approaches

They are looking for bold solutions that reduce impacts of climate change and/or empower others to act on climate change. Examples of solutions may include behavioural change, technology solutions or scaling of technology solutions, education, nature-based solutions, community actions or collaborations.

Areas

The solutions should drive impact in at least one of the following areas:

• Actively contribute to carbon reduction, carbon sequestration, and/or the transition to clean, renewable energy
• Support or empower local people who are undertaking climate action to improve their community, strengthen resilience and limit the effects of climate change
• Promote meaningful collaboration across stakeholder groups such as communities, businesses, and governments, to advance climate change solutions and resilience measures
• Support initiatives that develop job skills, improve educational outcomes, and provide access to opportunities within the green economy
• Limit the negative human, environmental, or societal impacts brought on by climate change

Phase 1 of the CPRG program provides flexible support to states, local governments, tribes, and territories regardless of where they are in their climate planning and implementation process. Planning grant recipients are using the funding to design climate action plans that incorporate a variety of measures to reduce GHG emissions from across their economies in six key sectors (electricity generation, industry, transportation, buildings, agriculture/natural and working lands, and waste management).

Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host the second US QIS Summer School facilitated by the US Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers from July 15 to 26, 2024.

The summer school is an in-residence learning experience for outstanding graduate and undergraduate students and early-career scientists seeking hands-on experience with quantum science and technology in a laboratory setting. The curriculum will be taught at a graduate level.

Curriculum Topics:

• Topological approaches to quantum computing
• Cold atoms and ion traps
• Error mitigation and error correction
• The current state of the quantum information science field
• Applications of quantum technologies, quantum materials, and quantum sensing

The objective is research, development, and demonstration activities that will yield new communications and control technologies to enhance the security of electric distribution systems. Particularly with respect to the grid’s capability to prevent, detect, and respond to inadvertent and/or malicious disruptions to critical information flows. A demonstration of the developed solution under the evolving system architecture—including changes occurring on the grid edge—needs to be performed to validate electric utility acceptance. A successful demonstration will lend confidence that the innovation will perform as expected, will increase information security on the grid, and will not interfere with the function of the energy delivery control system. Research findings leading to valuable insights and best practices regarding the design, configuration, and use will be broadly shared with the utility community creating a pathway to accelerate deployment.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to invest in innovative research and development (R&D) that accelerates the large-scale development and deployment of solar technologies to support an equitable transition to a decarbonized electricity system by 2035 and decarbonized energy sector by 2050. This Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) FOA solicits seedling R&D projects for both photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal power technologies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with its Partnership Intermediary, ENERGYWERX, has re-opened applications for small and medium-sized manufacturing firms (SMMs) to receive grants of up to $300,000 per funding round, at 50% cost share, to implement recommendations made in IAC assessments and/or DOE Combined Heat and Power Technical Assistance Partnership (CHP TAP) assessments – including what are now called “Onsite Energy TAP” assessments – and, once qualified, other assessments submitted previously for qualification as “IAC-equivalent.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) and Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), in collaboration with its newly established Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA), called ENERGYWERX, seeks to identify local organizations located in OCED project host communities interested in convening and leading logistics for multi-stakeholder engagement processes for federal projects. Selected local organizations will have the skills, resources, and expertise in event planning and convening multi-stakeholder initiatives or civic engagement processes and serve as a trusted community entity. In particular, the objective of this effort is to provide logistical and coordination support for event execution in Calcasieu Parish, LA, including: drafting and sending event invitation lists and text, identifying event venues, attending events, providing light refreshments, paying participating honorariums for specific convenings, and managing childcare arrangements (with other sub-contractors, as needed) during specific Shared Principles events.

In September, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Blueprint Cohorts Program (Blueprint Cohorts Program). The purpose of the Blueprint Cohorts Program is to provide EECBG grantees the support they need to execute their EECBG projects and programs. EECBG provides formula grants to over 2,700 local, state and tribal governments to support their clean energy goals. The DOE team has created 13 Blueprints that grantees may choose to follow with their EECBG Program grant available here. Many grantees are small local and tribal governments with limited staff capacity and limited experience with energy efficiency and clean energy. The Blueprints are designed to serve as model project ideas, making it easy for grantees to pursue impactful projects or programs with their EECBG grant funds, with expedited application review. ENERGYWERX is seeking applications from a single entity or a coalition of entities with experience working with local and tribal governments, administering virtual cohort-based trainings, and with subject matter expertise across the 13 Blueprint topic areas.