Within the Build to Scale opportunity, two challenges aimed at supporting technology entrepreneurs will be funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).

The Venture Challenge focuses on advancing technology-based economic development. Looking for programs producing businesses that can scale. The “build” tier provides up to $750,000 and the “scale” tier provides up to $2 million in federal funding over the grant period.

The Capital Challenge seeks to increase formation and access to capital, particularly in communities where there is a limited supply of equity-based funding and a demonstrated opportunity to invest in technology based businesses. The “form” tier provides up to $300,000 in federal funding for identifying and organizing investors in the early-stage, and the “deploy” tier provides up to $750,000 to start a fund.

Eligible entitles include nonprofits, venture development organization, public-private partnership, federal labs, economic development organizations, higher education institutions, and more.

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.

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.

The Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative—a unique partnership among the Urban Future Lab at New York University-Tandon, Greentown Labs, and Fraunhofer USA, and Founding Partner NYSERDA—combines a best-in-class partnership accelerator program with exclusive access to industry leaders shaping the carbontech marketplace of tomorrow. We’re seeking groundbreaking carbontech startups between TRL 4 and TRL 7 that are developing scalable solutions that capture carbon and/or incorporate captured carbon as a major input for valorization.

Technology areas include, but are not limited to:

• Carbontech solutions related to carbon capture (direct air capture or point source), carbon utilization/conversion into value-added products (e.g., fuels, chemicals, building materials, advanced materials, proteins/food), and/or carbon sequestration/removal technologies (e.g., mineralization and other sequestration methods)

• Carbontech solutions specifically for net-zero steel and/or low-carbon cement

• Carbontech solutions that utilize operational waste streams from heavy industries (e.g., mine tailings, slag, fly ash)

• Carbontech solutions specifically focused on blue carbon—carbon captured by the world’s ocean and coastal ecosystems (e.g., seaweed)

The Ohio Climate Justice Fund funds organizations across Ohio that are led and/or governed by Black, Indigenous, and leaders of color. The Fund awards competitive, one-time grants between $15,000-$30,000 to organizations to host community listening sessions focused on climate and clean energy. Listen. Lead. Share. (LLS), is a statewide grassroots campaign that includes a goal of hosting public conversations with community members and stakeholders about the best and most effective ways to address climate and environmental justice in their communities. We see intentional and authentic community listening as the first step in organizing grassroots power in support of equitable clean energy policies.

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

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $40 million for fundamental mathematics research on problems of interest to the DOE that require the integration of multiple mathematical topic areas. The Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Centers (MMICCs) supported by this funding opportunity will enable five-year, multi-institutional collaborations for cross-cutting mathematics. Pre-application deadline is May 17.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced $26 million for research to advance scientific data management and visualization. Foundational research in data management will address challenges stemming from the increasingly massive data sets produced by scientific experiments and supercomputers. Innovative and intuitive data visualization approaches will support scientific discovery, decision-making, and communication based on that data. Pre-application deadline is May 10.

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.

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.

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.

The Office of Science (SC) of the Department of Energy (DOE) hereby announces its continuing interest in receiving grant applications for support of work in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Isotope R&D and Production, and Accelerator R&D and Production. On September 3, 1992, DOE published in the Federal Register the Office of Energy Research Financial Assistance Program (now called the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program), 10 CFR 605, as a Final Rule, which contained a solicitation for this program. Information about submission of applications, eligibility, limitations, evaluation and selection processes and other policies and procedures are specified in 10 CFR 605. This FOA is our annual, broad, open solicitation that covers all research areas in SC and is open throughout the Fiscal Year. Any research within SC’s Congressionally-authorized mission may be proposed under this FOA.