The CSCI is pleased to be able to provide grants to climate adaptation professionals to create or advance a climate resilience plan or project in collaboration with a community that is on the front lines of the climate crisis. The community should be represented in the application and effort by a community-based organization and a local, regional or Tribal government entity, as defined below. The proposed work can cover any step in the Steps to Resilience framework, and can be a new or ongoing collaboration.  The funds can be used for a range of activities depending on the needs of the community, including climate vulnerability and risk analyses, planning processes, community engagement, project prioritization, and/or the implementation of projects.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Clean Energy Education Prize Round 2 Inspire Track aims to advance clean energy programming opportunities for younger students and clean energy connections for historically Black Colleges and Universities. The goal is to inspire HBCU-hosted summer or academic break educational programs that engage K–12 and community college students in clean energy topics. The Inspire Track supports the development or expansion of HBCU-hosted clean energy summer or academic break programs for K-12 and community college students. These programs will help explain basic concepts of clean energy technologies and illuminate possible clean energy educational and career pathways for students.

The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program makes federal funds available to states, U.S. territories, federally recognized tribal governments , and local governments for hazard mitigation activities. It does so recognizing the growing hazards associated with climate change , and the need for natural hazard risk mitigation activities that promote climate adaptation and resilience with respect to those hazards. These include both acute extreme weather events and chronic stressors which have been observed and are expected to increase in intensity and frequency in the future. The BRIC program’s guiding principles include supporting communities through capability and capacity-building; encouraging and enabling innovation, including multi-hazard resilience or nature-based solutions including the use of native plants; promoting partnerships; enabling large, systems-based projects; maintaining flexibility; and providing consistency. Through these efforts communities are able to better understand disaster risk and vulnerabilities, conduct community-driven resilience, hazard mitigation planning, and design transformational projects and programs.

This resource bank is intended to connect frontline community groups, nonprofits, policymakers, and businesses to materials relevant to accessing federal infrastructure funding. It comprises toolkits, networks, technical assistance, and links to relevant funding resources that center community. There is currently a vast amount of information available to meet this once-in-a-generation moment. Partners in the Communities First Infrastructure Alliance compiled this evolving list of go-to resources to help communities sift through some of that information.

Pre-development grants of up to $300,000 will be awarded over the course of multiple application rounds. The first round of Climate United NEXT grants will support clean energy projects in Native communities and will be open to non-profit organizations, state and local government entities, Indian tribes, and Institutions of Higher Education (IHE).  In 2025, Climate United will have additional rounds focused on other underserved market segments.

The 2025 competition offers $75,000 to $150,000 in prize awards during two stages to organizations to accelerate the growth and maturity of innovation ecosystems. Stage One offers $75,000 in cash prizes to organizations that identify challenges within their innovation ecosystems and propose unique solutions. The SBA encourages submissions from a broad range of organizations with a collaborative vision to nurture a national ecosystem for equitable access to entrepreneurship. Applicants are asked to align their application with one of the following GAFC Theme Areas: Lab-to-Market and Capital Formation.

A new project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Geothermal Technologies Office and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), will sponsor a cultural exchange program for Native Hawaiians and New Zealand Māori to connect around energy resources, including geothermal energy.

The 2025 Indigenous Geothermal Cultural Exchange (the Exchange) seeks to support Native Hawaiians by providing decision makers from respective people groups with the tools and knowledge necessary to understand the policy, regulatory, and developmental landscape for
geothermal energy in the context of their culture. The goal of this effort is to provide a forum of understanding and respect for Native Hawaiians to connect with Māori, who have successfully developed geothermal energy to benefit their people.

The purpose of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant is to assist at-risk local communities and Indian Tribes with planning and mitigating against the risk created by wildfire.

The Act prioritizes at-risk communities in an area identified as having high or very high wildfire hazard potential, are low-income, and/or have been impacted by a severe disaster. More details on these three priorities can be found in the Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs).

The CWDG helps communities in the wildland urban interface (WUI) implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy):

• Restore and Maintain Landscapes: Landscapes, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries, are resilient to fire, insect, disease, invasive species, and climate change disturbances, in accordance with management objectives.
• Create Fire Adapted Communities: Human populations and infrastructure are as prepared as possible to receive, respond to, and recover from wildland fire.
• Improve Wildfire Response: All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions.

Transmission Acceleration Grants (TAG) will support State and Tribal efforts to accelerate and improve transmission siting and permitting and strengthen transmission planning for critical transmission lines (100 kV or greater) in any area of the country. Eligible participants are State or Tribal entities, or entities working with them such as regional transmission planning organizations, regional-state committees, or not-for-profit organizations. The TAG Program is making $10 million in funding available at this time.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) Program is a 10-week summer internship for undergraduate and graduate students in STEM majors. As an MLEF participant you will:

• Complete a hands-on research project at one of DOE’s National Laboratories or DOE Headquarters.
• Learn from our scientists and engineers how we are minimizing the environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuels and industrial processes while working to achieve net-zero emissions.
• Receive a weekly stipend. Travel and housing assistance is also available.

The FY25 CLIMR Lab Call allocates part of the DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF), whose mission is to support technologies with commercial potential that originate at DOE national laboratories by attracting partners who will develop products and sell them into viable markets. This process fills a key need for many labs as they assess their own portfolios, identify the highest-quality prospective partners, and assist those industry partners in evaluating technologies for their business models. While only DOE national laboratories are eligible for funding from this lab call, every funded project must include at least one private sector partner. Incubators, accelerators, manufacturers, and trade associations are among the range of partner types encouraged to partner with national labs through the CLIMR lab call, as they are well positioned to help energy-related national lab-developed technology advance toward commercialization.

ACCEL is here to bolster you as you develop critical climatetech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach. We embrace intersectionality and look forward to you bringing your full self to the program. This year-long program combines acceleration with a curated curriculum, incubation through Greentown Labs membership, and extensive mentorship from Greentown and Browning the Green Space (BGS)’s networks of industry experts. Greentown and BGS know the climatetech industry must change the status quo to equitably position you to lead startups that will address climate change, support the development of diverse workforces, and fiercely advocate for the deployment of clean technologies in historically underserved communities. For Year 3 of the ACCEL program, we’re seeking applications from innovative startups at TRL 2-4 with founding and executive teams that are primarily made up of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) leaders who are developing climate solutions for the agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, resiliency + adaptation, and transportation sectors.