The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program was established in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help fund community-led projects that mitigate physical barriers to mobility and access, such as train tracks or highways. The Inflation Reduction Act established the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program that similarly funds projects that remove physical barriers as well as projects to improve walkability, safety, and affordable transportation access, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities. The Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST) has released a joint Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), which will combine the two major discretionary grants into one NOFO.

Under the B2S program, EDA awards and manages a portfolio of grants designed to increase regional capacity to strengthen ecosystems that equitably and inclusively support diverse technology innovators, entrepreneurs, and startups. These regions are growing technology-driven businesses, creating high-skill, high-wage jobs, and building the industries of the future.

• The Venture Challenge funds organizations that enable startups to become the next generation of globally competitive, industry-leading companies and supports regions in overcoming barriers that prevent would-be innovators from accessing these opportunities.
• Capital Challenge awards provide programmatic and operational support for the formation, launch, or scale of investment funds that seek to provide access to the kinds of capital that enable technology companies to start and scale.

The Tech Hubs Program is an economic development initiative designed to drive regional technology- and innovation-centric growth by strengthening a region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy critical technologies. This program will invest directly in regions with the assets, resources, capacity, and potential to transform into globally competitive innovation centers in approximately 10 years while catalyzing the creation of good jobs for American workers at all skill levels, both equitably and inclusively. EDA will designate at least 20 Tech Hubs across the country and will separately award approximately $15 million in strategy development grants to accelerate the development of future Tech Hubs. The Tech Hubs designation will be a widely recognized indicator of a region’s potential for rapid technology-led economic growth.

Congress established the Small Business Innovation Research / Technology Transfer (SBIR and STTR) programs to support scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of Federal research funds in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy.  Federal agencies with large research and development budgets set aside a small fraction of their funding for competitions among small businesses only. Small businesses that win awards in these R&D programs keep the rights to any technology developed and are encouraged to commercialize the technology. DOE’s Phase 1 Release 1 includes funding for topics at the Offices of:

• Advanced Scientific Computing Research
• Basic Energy Sciences
• Biological and Environmental Research
• Fusion Energy Sciences
• High Energy Physics
• Nuclear Physics

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering oversees the Department of Defense (DoD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. These competitive programs are Congressionally authorized set-asides established to encourage domestic small businesses to engage in research and development with the potential for commercialization. The SBIR/STTR programs support scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of Federal research funds in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy and accelerate capabilities to the warfighter. ​Find out what topics are currently open or learn when the next solicitation will be available.

The CSA Technical Assistance Grant Program is designed to provide technical assistance to individual farmers and ranchers in California who are interested in applying for or have received incentive awards from CDFA’s Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP), Healthy Soils Program (HSP) and State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP).

This funding opportunity will invest appropriations of $45 million over three years for development of new solar photovoltaics (PV) technologies to improve U.S. domestic manufacturing and competitiveness and secure our domestic energy supply chains. Topic 1 is focused on demonstration activities that support the domestic silicon PV module supply chain. Topic 2 is focused on RD&D and product development for dual-use PV with the aim of developing these market segments in the United States and increasing deployment. In both Topic Areas, SETO funding aims to retire technical, business, and market risks of solar hardware to validate pathways to commercial success through customer engagement and trials.

Sea Grant and the NOAA Climate Program Office seek to establish programs aimed at at placing people across the country into good jobs that advance climate resilience and assisting employers in developing a 21st century workforce that is climate literate, informed by climate resilience, and skilled at addressing consequent challenges. NOAA envisions making between 10-20 awards under this competition, at amounts ranging from $500,000-$10 million each. NOAA expects projects to range in duration from 24 months to 48 months, beginning no earlier than August 1, 2024. This opportunity is open to state, tribal, territorial and local governments, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations in coastal states or territories. Resources from NOAA’s Climate Program Office, Office for Coastal Management, and National Sea Grant Office and its partners will be available to provide technical assistance to applicants and recipients to support these innovative efforts.

The grant program will help eligible communities handle expenses related to incidents (Presidentially declared disasters) that damaged water systems. Funds can be used to develop water infrastructure system capacity and resiliency to reduce or eliminate long term risks from hazards resulting from (Presidentially declared) disasters during calendar year 2022. For the purposes of this program, the term “water” refers to all water resource infrastructure, including drinking water, wastewater, storm drainage, and solid waste facilities.

The competition will award up to 60 grants to states, Tribal governments, municipalities, and eligible nonprofits to expand access to residential and community solar projects, storage, and enabling upgrades in LI/DAC in low-income and disadvantaged communities. Funds may be used for both financial and technical assistance, and this may include subgrants, rebates, subsidies, other incentive payments, or loans.

The program consists of competitive grants or sales incentives to eligible entities for activities designed to expand the sale and use of higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel fuels by expanding the infrastructure for renewable fuels derived from U.S. agricultural products. The program is also intended to encourage a more comprehensive approach to market higher blends by sharing the costs related to building out biofuel-related infrastructure. Funding is made available to fueling stations, fuel distribution facilities, convenience stores, hypermarket fueling stations, fleet facilities, and similar entities with capital investments.

The program will support projects to improve and expand the surface transportation infrastructure in rural areas to increase connectivity, improve the safety and reliability of the movement of people and freight, and generate regional economic growth and improve quality of life. Eligible projects for Rural grants include highway, bridge, and tunnel projects that help improve freight, safety, and provide or increase access to an agricultural, commercial, energy, or transportation facilities that support the economy of a rural area.