Competition/Prize

Geophone Prize Phase 3 (American-Made Challenges)

The Geothermal Geophone Prize consists of three phases that will fast-track efforts to design, test, and fabricate advanced functional seismometer prototypes. Each stage will include a contest period when competitors work to rapidly advance their solutions with the support of the American-Made Network. Sign up to compete here.

In Phase I (April – September 2022), teams will submit concept and feasibility designs to identify and develop high temperature, downhole seismic sensors using currently available components. Up to 8 semifinalists will receive $150,000 in cash prizes and vouches!

Phase II will open in December 2022 and close in October 2023. Both new and repeat applicants are eligible to submit design and proof-of-concept for their technologies. Up to 5 finalists will receive $350,000 in cash prizes and vouchers.

Phase III will open in December 2023 and close in March 2025. In this phase, teams will prototype and test their Phase II designs. Up to 2 winners will receive a $350,000 cash prize.

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Geophone Prize Phase 2 (American-Made Challenges)

The Geothermal Geophone Prize consists of three phases that will fast-track efforts to design, test, and fabricate advanced functional seismometer prototypes. Each stage will include a contest period when competitors work to rapidly advance their solutions with the support of the American-Made Network. Sign up to compete here.

In Phase I (April – September 2022), teams will submit concept and feasibility designs to identify and develop high temperature, downhole seismic sensors using currently available components. Up to 8 semifinalists will receive $150,000 in cash prizes and vouches!

Phase II will open in December 2022 and close in October 2023. Both new and repeat applicants are eligible to submit design and proof-of-concept for their technologies. Up to 5 finalists will receive $350,000 in cash prizes and vouchers.

Looking forward, in Phase III (December 2023 – March 2025), teams will prototype and test their Phase II designs. Up to 2 winners will receive a $350,000 cash prize.

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Geophone Prize Phase I (American-Made Challenges)

The Geothermal Geophone Prize consists of three phases that will fast-track efforts to design, test, and fabricate advanced functional seismometer prototypes. Each stage will include a contest period when competitors work to rapidly advance their solutions with the support of the American-Made Network. Sign up to compete here.

In Phase I (April – September 2022), teams will submit concept and feasibility designs to identify and develop high temperature, downhole seismic sensors using currently available components. Up to 8 semifinalists will receive $150,000 in cash prizes and vouchers!

Looking forward, in Phase II (December 2022 – October 2023), new and repeat applicants will submit design and proof-of-concept for their technologies. Up to 5 finalists will receive $350,000 in cash prizes and vouchers. Finally, in Phase III (December 2023 – March 2025), teams will prototype and test their Phase II designs. Up to 2 winners will receive a $350,000 cash prize.

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CABLE Conductor Manufacturing (American-Made Challenges)

The Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric and thermal applications (CABLE) Conductor Manufacturing Prize aims to help supercharge U.S. energy and manufacturing industries.

In the current stage of this prize, competitors will provide a sample of their material for electrical conductivity testing and preliminary plans to scale-up and manufacture the material according to prize requirements. Up to 6 competitors each will win $200,000 in cash awards and $100,000 in noncash voucher support to work with a DOE national laboratory (including user facilities) or other American-Made Challenges Network provider in Stage 3. Any eligible entity can compete in Stage 2 regardless of whether they were a competitor in Stage 1.

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MSI STEM Research & Development Consortium (MSRDC)

The MSI STEM Research & Development Consortium (MSRDC) is a solutions provider, research development partner and strategic asset to more than 60 minority-serving research institutions, industry and government partners. Our members use a combination of basic, applied, and/or advanced technology development research to pioneer groundbreaking solutions. With MSRDC’s unique funding vehicle, its members enjoy access to accelerate and elevate their research from concept to prototype and beyond. Current R&D funding opportunities include:

  • Opaque Building Envelopes
  • Thermal Energy Storage
  • Next Generation Electric Machines (NGEM)
  • Directed Energy Weapons – Ultra-Short Pulse Laser and Atmospheric Characterization
  • High-Temperature Technologies for Naval Applications
  • Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for Photonics, Power & Energy, Atmospherics, and Quantum Science
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Urban Future Prize Competition

The Urban Future Lab is pleased to announce, for the sixth year, the Urban Future Prize Competition, which seeks to find the brightest climatetech startups and, through the generous support of The New York Community Trust, MUFG, and NYSERDA, award two winners with $50,000 cash prizes. These awardees will also receive admission into the ACRE Incubator, New York’s longest-running and most successful climatetech program. The deadline has been extended to June 20.

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Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER)

RACER will award $25 million in funding for projects to enable communities to utilize solar and solar-plus-storage to prevent disruptions in power caused by extreme weather and other events, and to rapidly restore electricity if it goes down. Projects will foster engagement and ongoing communication among multiple stakeholders such as utilities, municipal planners, emergency responders, community groups, and others, especially in underserved communities located in areas vulnerable to extreme events causing frequent energy and power service disruptions. In addition, projects will develop and demonstrate rapid energy restoration technologies based on the community resilience plan in order to increase the durability of photovoltaic (PV) systems.

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Industrial Technology Validation Pilot

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) has launched phase two of the Industrial Technology Validation pilot. This phase is open to all industrial sites that want to team with technology vendors to evaluate innovative manufacturing technologies in their plants. Technology vendors are also invited to apply individually.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until June 30, 2022.

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Hydropower Operations Optimization (H2Os) Prize

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is launching the Hydropower Operations Optimization (H2Os) Prize to encourage the development of new solutions that can help advance hydropower’s contribution to the grid. Hydropower provides beneficial operational flexibility in timing and storage of energy that can be better leveraged to meet grid needs. This competition challenges innovators to employ modeling, data analytics, and machine learning to schedule hydropower operations in coordination with existing grid scheduling practices while respecting water management operations and constraints.

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XPRIZE Carbon Removal

XPRIZE Carbon Removal is aimed at tackling the biggest threat facing humanity – fighting climate change and rebalancing Earth’s carbon cycle. Funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation, this $100M competition is the largest incentive prize in history, an extraordinary milestone.‎ This four-year global competition invites innovators and teams from anywhere on the planet to create and demonstrate solutions that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans, and sequester it durably and sustainably. To win the grand prize, teams must demonstrate a working solution at a scale of at least 1000 tonnes removed per year; model their costs at a scale of 1 million tonnes per year; and show a pathway to achieving a scale of gigatonnes per year in future.

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The ERM Foundation

Small grants and pro-bono professional support for smaller nonprofits is available from the ERM Foundation. This foundation invests in organizations and programs that focus on:

  • Protecting and restoring biodiversity (including environmental education)
  • Improving access to low carbon products and services
  • Investing in women’s livelihoods in the ‘green’ economy
  • Improving access to clean water and sanitation
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The Story of Stuff Grassroots Grants

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis to this grant program for grassroots projects. Grants do not exceed $5,000, and the organization aims to award $100,000 in funding throughout 2022.

Story of Stuff gives grants to BIPOC led and serving groups with a budget of $50,000 or less that focus on water privatization, plastic pollution, and other environmental justice focus areas.

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