The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to invite proposals for funding from established organizations interested in providing innovative hands-on, in-person manufacturing training and technical assistance to eligible small manufacturing business concerns, under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Empower to Grow Program (formerly known as 7(j) Management and Technical Assistance Program).

The objective of Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy (IGNIITE) 2026 is to support early career scientists and engineers pursuing disruptive, unconventional ideas across America’s most critical energy technology priorities. To unleash innovation and strengthen American energy dominance, IGNIITE 2026 will fund projects across five priority technical areas: energy supply chain security, including critical minerals; advanced nuclear energy, including both fusion and fission; geothermal energy; grid reliability and security; and American manufacturing competitiveness. 

Direct-fund basic research at universities that complement applied research in nuclear forensics at the DOE National Laboratories to include foundational disciplines of radiochemistry; geochemistry; shock physics; nuclear physics, science and engineering; radiation detector science; nuclear material science engineering; nuclear chemical engineering; modeling, simulation and optimization methods for nuclear applications; and seismology and infrasound methods supporting yield determination. A secondary benefit to this research is the development of a diverse and highly talented cadre of technical professionals, including scientists, engineers, technicians, and operational personnel, who will become the next generation of technical leaders in nuclear missions, such as nuclear forensics, nonproliferation, incident response, intelligence, and energy. These professionals are expected to primarily benefit the DOE National Laboratories as future research staff but will also benefit academia, private industry, and U.S. government agencies, including Energy, State, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and the Intelligence Community.

The objective of this NOFO is to support cost-shared grants to fund a portion of NRC fees for pre-application review activities and application review activities for advanced nuclear reactors and supporting facilities. Cost-shared grants will be awarded to selected applicants seeking funds in support of work with the NRC to increase regulatory certainty, review topical reports or white papers, and other
efforts focused on obtaining certification and licensing approvals. The Department recognizes that the development of advanced nuclear reactors involves addressing regulatory requirements and certification and licensing processes that are required for the commercial industry to successfully bring these designs and technologies to market.

Unleashing Tribal Energy Development Under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs is soliciting applications to advance affordable, reliable, and secure energy development of Tribal energy resources for the benefit of Tribes and their members. Projects funded under this NOFO are expected to advance Tribal sovereignty through Tribal energy development, efficiency, and use. Projects under Topic Area 1 are expected to serve the electric loads and support the energy needs of Tribes at the scale of a Tribal community or communities. These projects entail the construction of energy assets and projects. Projects under Topic Area 2 are expected to complete all pre-development activities necessary for the deployment of community scale energy projects. Projects under Topic Area 3 are expected to complete necessary pre-development activities for large scale commercial development of Tribal energy resources which lead to enhancement and strengthening of Tribal energy and economic infrastructure. DOE expects to make approximately $50 million of federal funding available for new awards under this NOFO. DOE may issue awards in one, multiple, or none of the Topic Areas.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports critical minerals and materials. Critical minerals and materials (CMM) are the building blocks for technologies foundational to U.S. energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness. To build a secure domestic supply of CMMs, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) aims to support collaborative industry partnerships to prototype and pilot innovative processing technologies that are currently only proven at the bench scale to address CMM challenges in high impact areas. The CMM Accelerator program will advance these mid-stage innovations through validation, benchmarking, access to national lab test beds, testing in industry relevant environments, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. The program establishes a pipeline to support technology maturation to ultimately unlock private capital investments. It also will leverage other DOE lab-based activities, such as the Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI Hub) and the Minerals to Materials Supply Chain Research Facility (METALLIC).

SPARK is an opportunity to meet load demand growth and resource adequacy, and to address critical national, interregional, and regional needs. OE achieves these goals by stimulating investment in power system infrastructure and building partnerships between states, local governments, tribes, and power system operators to enhance reliability and affordability of the electric grid.

The Manufacturing Deployment Office (MDO) is issuing this NOFO to request applications for projects which will develop domestic facilities toward battery materials processing, manufacturing, and recycling. The goals of this program are to strengthen critical domestic manufacturing and supply chains while increasing critical minerals production by up to 15% by 2030 for key critical materials used in batteries and other applications.

The USDA Forest Service is delivering the Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program (Community Wood) to support the Rural Revitalization Technologies 7 U.S.C. Sec. 8113 and Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 Pub. L. 115-334 Sec. 9013, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) Pub. L. 117-58 Div. J Title VI which directly support the installation of thermally led community wood energy systems or development and expansion of innovative wood product facilities. The intent of the Community Wood is to support forest health and stimulate local economies by expanding renewable wood energy use and innovative wood products manufacturing capacity.

The DOE SC program in High Energy Physics (HEP) hereby announces its interest in applications to conduct cross-cutting use-inspired basic research and development (R&D) to advance accelerator science and technology (AS&T) and domestic supplier development that supports SC’s activities in physical sciences research and which is of broader benefit to other U.S. government agencies and industry. Please note that this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is for cross-cutting R&D and domestic supplier development and that program-specific AS&T R&D is supported though NOFOs issued by each SC program.

DOE announced a request for applications from interdisciplinary teams addressing the Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges to accelerate R&D workflows using novel AI models. DOE is soliciting new FY26 Phase I small team and Phase II large team applications in the following topic areas: advanced manufacturing, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, biotechnology, critical materials, quantum information science, semiconductors and microelectronics, discovery science, and energy.

The Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) is the DoW’s
demonstration and validation program for innovative technologies that enhance military readiness, improve installation resilience, and strengthen America’s defense infrastructure. The program focuses on deploying common sense, cost-effective, and scalable solutions that ensure operational effectiveness, improve warfighter capabilities, and reduce regulatory burdens.