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.

This FOA will develop technologies enabling clean hydrogen production, transport, storage, and use in the energy sector, including electricity, heat, transportation, and industrial use. The development of these technologies supports the ambitious goals for a greenhouse gasneutral economy by 2050, a carbon pollution free power sector by 2035, and a fifty percent reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution by 2030. See Amendment 6 FOA for up-to-date information on Areas of Interest. 

Small Innovative Projects (SIPS) in Solar 2022: Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power and Photovoltaics funding program will award up to $5 million for projects that seek to fund innovative research and development seedling projects in photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) technologies in an effort to accelerate the large-scale development and deployment of solar technology. SETO expects to make about 15 to 23 awards, each ranging between $250,000 and $400,000. Teams from universities, federally-funded research and development centers, nonprofit and for-profit companies, community-based organizations, state agencies, and local governments are encouraged to apply. Prior to submitting a full application for this opportunity, a brief 1-2 paragraph, mandatory letter of intent is due on February 28 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (CSP) Fiscal Year 2022 Research, Development, and Demonstration funding program, which will award up to $25 million for innovative projects in CSP technologies. These projects will accelerate the large-scale development and deployment of solar technology. Projects supported by this opportunity will focus on lowering the cost of CSP technologies and creating new market opportunities for the industry, with the goal of enabling substantial deployment of CSP to decarbonize the electricity grid and energy system. These projects will work to apply CSP to new industries and advance the development of components for next-generation CSP systems based on solid particle heat transfer media. SETO expects to make about 8 to 15 awards, each ranging between $750,000 and $6 million. Diverse teams from universities, federally-funded research and development centers, nonprofit and for-profit companies, community-based organizations, state agencies, and local governments are encouraged to apply. Prior to submitting a full application for this opportunity, a brief, mandatory letter of intent is due on March 16 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

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

The real estate industry is the largest contributor to humanity’s most significant challenge, the global climate crisis. With buildings accounting for 40% of global energy, greenhouse gases and raw materials, real estate’s adoption of innovative technologies and Net Zero solutions will be a major catalyst to avoiding a climate disaster. The Net Zero Lab is focused on tackling the climate crisis by facilitating the successful collaboration between large, successful real estate owners, operators, vendors, and innovative startups driven to deliver energy efficient and Net Zero focused technology solutions. Upward Enterprise Partners are looking for advanced technologies that are focused on Net Zero and alternative, sustainable energy solutions that will minimize energy consumption and significantly reduce carbon footprint in the built environment under the following categories: heating & cooling, energy generation & storage, building automation, building envelope, energy efficient equipment, software & reporting.

U.S. DOT’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awards contracts to small businesses to pursue research on and develop innovative solutions to our nation’s transportation challenges.  For the U.S. DOT SBIR Program, Phase I offers can be funded up to $200,000 unless otherwise noted in Section VIII. The period of performance of the resulting contract shall be six months. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is looking for proposed research the would explore the creation of a tool or application that can help transit agencies select the right battery electric bus for their unique systems—taking into consideration terrain, climate, length of route, etc.—and to create models to predict the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impacts of this change in transportation type. Click above to view the full list of research topics.

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

KickStart Venture Services, a department in Innovate Carolina’s Office of Technology Commercialization at UNC-Chapel Hill, supports research-based startup formation and growth by providing education, early-stage funding, and on-campus accelerator space.

In addition, KickStart has quarterly Commercialization Grant Awards, ranging from $5,000 – $50,000.