The WCS Entrepreneur Circle (E-Circle) is a three-month cohort program designed for entrepreneurs who identify as women to communicate, reflect, and connect with each other. More than a mentorship program, the E-Circle offers you opportunities to commune with up to 11 fellow entrepreneurs, build relationships with leaders in this space, and collect new resources. In monthly virtual meetings and in Slack, the group will learn from a keynote speaker, share advice, challenges, and offer support. The program is initiated and organized by WCS Entrepreneurship Committee.

The new Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking (EJ TCGM) Program is a competition to select multiple Grantmakers around the nation to reduce barriers to the federal grants application process communities face and increase the efficiency of the awards process for environmental justice grants. Grantmakers will design competitive application and submission processes, award environmental justice subgrants, implement a tracking and reporting system, provide resources and support to communities, all in collaboration with EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.

The mHUB EnergyTech Startup Pitch Competition will showcase cutting-edge hardtech startups specializing in climate and energy technologies. This pitch competition, taking place virtually on June 27, 2023, is designed to support under-represented women founders and entrepreneurs of color. Startups focused on innovative climate tech and energy technologies can apply to pitch virtually to a group of esteemed judges for cash awards totaling $8,500 and connections to industry decision-makers and investors interested in hardtech.

• 1st Place Prize: $5,000
• 2nd Place Prize: $2,500
• 3rd Place Prize: $1,000

Scale Up NM helps to advance the strength of New Mexico’s communities, promotes equity through economic justice, enables high-quality home-grown innovation, and diversifies NM’s economy by expanding target industries. In partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, Scale Up NM supports the programming addressing barriers to commercialization for women, and in partnership with NM Startup Factory, supports investment education events. Target industry sectors (derived from NMEDD’s plan) include outdoor recreation, tourism, clean energy, arts, value-added agriculture, industrial trade and healthcare.

The TSAF supports tribes in asserting control over their energy resources and
focuses on making project implementation feasible by leveraging state and
federal programs, philanthropic dollars, and partnerships with other tribes
across Indian County while working in alignment to identify, develop, finance
and implement solar power projects that meet community needs, including
education, hands-on training, and energy cost reductions for tribal members.

The Tribal Energy Innovators fellowship is designated for federally recognized tribal members who are interested, invested, and engaged in work which supports renewable energy infrastructure and tribal energy capacity building within a tribal community, tribally focused programming, and/or tribal organization. The Tribal Energy Innovators Fellowship provides a modest fellowship stipend and industry resources to support the development of innovative ideas and the use of problem-solving processes that lead to sustainable renewable energy solutions.

The Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund Tribal Energy Plan Grant program will provide funding up to $50,000 for up to one year for tribal energy plan projects. The development of Tribal Energy Plans are intended to help tribal communities quickly and efficiently triage the known practical and impactful strategies to reduce greenhouse gas, reduce energy costs, and operate more sustainably. The grants can be used to compensate the planning team for their time, contract the services of consultants or other third-party experts, and cover the costs of public meetings and other methods soliciting public input.

LabStart is looking to discover the next generation of climate tech entrepreneurs. We help diverse entrepreneurs commercialize climate tech focused technologies from the US National Labs in order to launch startups. We are currently running a pilot cohort and are looking for passionate individuals looking to launch a climate tech startup.

Awards resulting from the FOA will focus on enhancing MSI programs to help foster a sustainable and diverse DOE Environmental Management (EM) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce pipeline. The awards will also aid in promoting the development of a nationally engaged scientific and engineering workforce that will lead to future career pathways in the DOE EM complex for underrepresented groups. The total estimated value of the FOA is $24,500,000 and resulting financial assistance awards will have periods of performance ranging from 12-36 months.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is launching the HBCU Clean Energy Education Prize to help develop advanced clean energy programming opportunities and connections for HBCUs across the United States. The prize focuses on three primary goals:

1. Inspire K-12 and community college students to engage with and learn about clean energy subjects through HBCU-hosted educational programs.
2. Initiate partnerships between HBCUs and other universities with proven clean energy focused programs to build new cross-university degree and certificate programs.
3. Integrate and build programming between university and industry partners to advance career opportunities for HBCU students in the clean energy space.

The American-Made Sunny Awards for Equitable Community Solar (The Sunny Awards) is a $200,000 prize competition that will recognize community solar portfolios and programs that employ or develop best practices to increase equitable access to the meaningful benefits of community solar for subscribers and their communities. Community solar is any solar project or purchasing program in which the benefits of a solar project flow to multiple customers such as individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and other groups, within a certain geographic area.

The Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), conducts consistent interactions with Tribes who are members of the Nuclear Energy Tribal Working Group (NETWG). The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to fund a cooperative agreement that engages tribal government leaders and representatives on issues and activities involving the topics for which NE has responsibility such as advanced reactors, siting an interim storage and/or disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste, transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, cultural resource management, STEM education, environmental justice, etc.