JUMP (Join the discussion, Unveil innovation, Make connections, Promote tech-to-market) into STEM is a building science competition for undergraduate and graduate students at U.S. colleges and universities. JUMP into STEM aims to attract bright students from a variety of majors to building science. The JUMP into STEM program seeks to inspire the next generation of building scientists, focusing on creative ideation and diversity in the building science field. The diversity objective is inclusive of an interdisciplinary mix of majors and representation by students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in STEM. Challenge topics for this year are Building Affordability, Managing Peak Power Demand in Building, and Taking Comfort to the Extreme.

U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced it will make up to $54.4 million in additional funding available to advance diverse carbon management approaches that reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) pollution. The funding will support the development of technologies that capture CO₂ from industrial and power generation sources or directly from the atmosphere and transport it either for permanent geologic storage or conversion into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals.

Urban Future Lab and SecondMuse are pioneering the GROW + TOGETHER Accelerator to merge the innovative forces of hardtech clean energy startups with the manufacturing industry in the Northeast US. Supported by an EPIC award funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions, this model accelerates hardtech startup integration into existing supply chains, overcoming common barriers to market penetration faced by innovative products. To qualify, startups and manufacturers must first register their interest for a virtual Startup-Manufacturer Matchmaking event, which will offer facilitated conversations to clear initial hurdles in the manufacturing process. Additional funding will support a 9-month program that links hardtech clean energy startups and manufacturers with technical support and a tailored curriculum to assist with contracting, fundraising, pilot opportunities and more.

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.

The NSF Directorate for Engineering (ENG) seeks to build engineering research capacity across the nation by investing in new academic investigators who have yet to receive sufficient research funding from Federal Agencies. The Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) program will support new investigators as they initiate their research programs and advance in their careers as researchers, educators, and innovators. This funding opportunity aims to broaden the base of investigators involved in engineering research and therefore is limited to investigators that are not affiliated with “very high research activity” R1 institutions.

Through the Geothermal Collegiate Competition, the U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) encourages students to develop innovative solutions for geothermal energy application challenges and build career skills for the clean energy workforce. Teams must have at least three undergraduate and/or graduate members (can be from multiple schools) and students of any discipline can participate. Final competition deliverables will be due in December 2024.

For more than a decade, the BNEF Pioneers program has identified a group of game-changing technologies or innovations annually – each with the potential to accelerate global decarbonization and halt climate change. Applicants are shortlisted by the BNEF Pioneers team, and finalists are judged by a panel of BNEF experts. Winners must prove they offer a novel, substantial, scalable and competitive solution. In 2025, the program will focus on three global climate challenges and will award the Pioneers prize to innovators with scalable, impactful and equitable solutions to these challenges.

The program will bring together entrepreneurs from across Africa, empowering them to address climate resilience and food security. Founders will receive expert training, critical resources to accelerate their ventures, a one-week in-person residency in Washington, DC, and a one-week in-person residency in Nairobi, Kenya.

The program will bring together entrepreneurs from across DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV), empowering them to address climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. Founders will receive expert training, critical resources to accelerate their ventures, and two in-person residency weeks in the DMV. We’re looking for (for-profit) startups that are building scalable solutions that are tackling challenges related to climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience across the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced up to $127.5 million in federal funding to support the development of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture, removal, and conversion test centers for cement manufacturing facilities and power plants.  This effort supports the establishment of test centers to cost-effectively research and evaluate carbon capture, removal, and conversion technologies in an industrial/utility environment.

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.

The Ocean Exchange Collegiate Award, and the Guy Harvey Foundation Collegiate Award 2024, of $10,000 USD each, are given to the solutions that advance our understanding of the ocean and help minimize our impact on these resources, even while using them for human benefit, resulting in more resilient bodies of water including healthy marine life and coastlines.