Each year, Women in Cleantech and Sustainability hosts a startup pitch competition focused on spotlighting companies led by women, either as CEOs or in the C-suite. Six applicants will be selected to pitch their ideas on the WCS stage in front of Silicon Valley VCs and an audience of 300+ industry professionals.

Women from six companies will be selected out of all applications to pitch their innovative cleantech or sustainable-focused business idea to a panel of industry leaders. Startups will have 5 minutes on the virtual stage followed by 3 minutes for Q&A from the judges. Winners will be announced towards the end of the conference.  The winner will be offered consultation time with local Marketing, PR, Accounting, VCs, and relevant industry experts.

The  U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), released a $5 million solicitation for small-scale desalination and water-reuse technologies that will improve the safety, security, and affordability of America’s water supply.

The Pilot Program request for proposals (RFP) offers applicants the chance to design, build, operate, and test desalination and water reuse treatment systems that produce clean water from non-traditional water sources, such as brackish water, seawater, produced and extracted water, and wastewater.

VillageCapital is seeking startups in the US doing at least one of these: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, expand access to clean energy, enhance the resilience and sustainability of food and water systems, bolster circular economy through reduction of waste and regeneration of materials, and/or provide analytical insights used to accelerate sustainability and mitigate climate change.

The top two startups selected by peers will receive a grant of USD $50,000.

Candidates invited into Idea Lab will engage in 6-18 months of incubation, mentorship, and training depending on their technical background, stage of development, and needs moving forward. Applications are open April 22 – June 6, 2022. Selected candidates will be announced in July/August 2022 timeframe.

Benefits: Idea Lab is designed to help entrepreneurs navigate the challenges of product design/development and provide mentorship, tools, and guidance you will need to build a first iteration prototype. Candidates will have access to a tailored curriculum that will expose you to the principles of sustainable and human-centered design practices.

The Tech Equity Hub is a virtual accelerator that provides a cohort of 8 to 10 Black and Latinx female founders the tools, resources, and connections they need to build successful tech companies. During the 12-week program the cohort will engage in workshops, 1:1 mentor sessions, and cohort community building events. Expert faculty and accomplished mentors will cover product design and development, marketing and sales, business strategy and finance, legal, fundraising and leadership development.

At the conclusion of the program, they will bring the founders to New York City for a full day of activities, including a live pitch evening, networking with the Project W community, and quality time with the members of the cohort. The 2021 cohort raised $5.4 million.

Lacuna Fund provides data scientists, researchers, and social entrepreneurs with the resources they need to either produce new labeled datasets to address an underserved population or problem, augment existing datasets to be more representative, or update old datasets to be more sustainable.

Lacuna Fund seeks proposals from organizations interested in developing datasets for equitable climate outcomes in climate & energy and climate & health.

The third edition of The Clean Fight will be focused on high-growth, scalable solutions creating abundant storage, enabling grid stability and a resilient, electrified future. This non-residential program will run from November 2022-April 2023. Info sessions will be held on May 24 and June 14.

The program is open to growth-stage start-ups with energy storage and battery innovations, including but not limited to: Transportation Battery Packs & Systems, Stationary Storage Systems, Battery Materials, Battery Cells and Packs, Materials Processing, Power Electronics & Controls, and Business Model & Financing Innovation. Companies must have intent to scale in New York. Program benefits include customer development, financing support, and scaling assistance without taking an equity stake- companies will be eligible to apply for up to $100k per company.

With an active energy mentor network,  the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator has deep expertise in the energy industry. The accelerator serves to accelerate the energy transition by supporting early-stage startups that contribute to significant energy efficiency improvements, are developing energy derived from renewable, zero-emissions sources or are curbing the environmental impact of all types of energy production, distribution or usage, or enabling progress toward net-zero carbon. This includes: Alternative Fuels, Biomass Energy, Carbon Neutrality, Management or Accounting (Emissions monitoring, ESG tracking, carbon tracking/measurement or carbon capture/sequestration), Digital Technologies for Energy (Artificial intelligence, smart trading, computational chemistry tools, remote sensing/IoT), Energy Efficiency or Storage (Carbon reduction technologies, battery technologies, fuel cells, architecture, engineering, or construction technologies or Infrastructure efficiencies), Geothermal Energy, Hydrogen, Nature-based solutions for carbon footprint reduction (Reforestation/afforestation or circular economy applications), Solar Energy, Waste Heat to Power, and Wind Energy.

The Cartier Women’s Initiative’s regional and thematic awards recognize and fund talented impact entrepreneurs from around the world who are leveraging business as a force for good.

Thematic awards are available for Science & Technology Pioneers and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. The DEI Award has been created to encourage entrepreneurial solutions designed to close gaps of access, outcome or opportunity for communities that have been underrepresented or underserved. While the other regional and thematic awards of the Cartier Women’s Initiative focus on supporting women, this pilot award is open to all genders.

The High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Program seeks qualified industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Laboratories. HPC4EI is the umbrella initiative for the HPC4Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) and HPC4Materials (HPC4Mtls) Programs. DOE’s HPC4Mfg Program is interested in establishing collaborations that address key energy and decarbonization related challenges for domestic manufacturers. The HPC4Mfg Program is designed to improve manufacturing processes, address products’ lifecycle energy consumption, and increase the efficiency of energy conversion and storage technologies by providing access to national lab supercomputing resources and expertise for high performance computing projects.