Mentorship / Incubator / Accelerator

The Clean Fight: Affordable Housing Accelerator (New York)

The fifth edition of The Clean Fight will be focused on decarbonizing existing multifamily low-to-moderate income (LMI) and affordable housing. In collaboration with leaders in the affordable housing market at the Climate Friendly Homes Fund administered by The Community Preservation Corporation, we are seeking high impact, market-proven climate solutions that break down barriers to decarbonization and simplify the retrofit process for multifamily LMI and affordable housing within New York City and State. Our non-residential program will run from May-October 2025.

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FY 2025 Solar Module and Solar Hardware (SMASH) Incubator

SMASH Incubator seeks to address the lack of sufficient private investment that is available to successfully commercialize the output of research, development, and demonstration activities and bring innovative solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to market. Specifically, projects funded through this NOFO will encourage innovations in solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing across the supply chain, with the aim of reducing U.S. reliance on imported materials and technologies. This NOFO also encourages the development of new solar hardware and technology for domestic use and potential export. These activities are expected to deliver jobs and economic growth in the clean energy sector, while increasing national energy security.
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2025 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition

The 2025 competition offers $75,000 to $150,000 in prize awards during two stages to organizations to accelerate the growth and maturity of innovation ecosystems. Stage One offers $75,000 in cash prizes to organizations that identify challenges within their innovation ecosystems and propose unique solutions. The SBA encourages submissions from a broad range of organizations with a collaborative vision to nurture a national ecosystem for equitable access to entrepreneurship. Applicants are asked to align their application with one of the following GAFC Theme Areas: Lab-to-Market and Capital Formation.

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Advancing Climate and Cleantech Leaders (ACCEL)

ACCEL is here to bolster you as you develop critical climatetech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach. We embrace intersectionality and look forward to you bringing your full self to the program. This year-long program combines acceleration with a curated curriculum, incubation through Greentown Labs membership, and extensive mentorship from Greentown and Browning the Green Space (BGS)’s networks of industry experts. Greentown and BGS know the climatetech industry must change the status quo to equitably position you to lead startups that will address climate change, support the development of diverse workforces, and fiercely advocate for the deployment of clean technologies in historically underserved communities. For Year 3 of the ACCEL program, we’re seeking applications from innovative startups at TRL 2-4 with founding and executive teams that are primarily made up of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) leaders who are developing climate solutions for the agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, resiliency + adaptation, and transportation sectors.

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The Clean Fight: Decarbonizing Multifamily LMI & Affordable Housing (NY)

The fifth edition of The Clean Fight is focused on decarbonizing existing multifamily low-to-moderate income (LMI) and affordable housing in New York City and State. In collaboration with leaders in the affordable housing market–the Climate Friendly Homes Fund administered by The Community Preservation Corporation–we’re seeking high impact solutions that break down barriers to decarbonization and simplify the retrofit process for multifamily LMI and affordable housing. Our program is laser-focused on supporting the scaling of your solution. How? Through high-touch matchmaking with housing partners, and critical ecosystem players, connections to the right sources of capital to meet your growth needs, and access to technical assistance and grant funding to facilitate demonstration projects in New York State.

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FLIPspace: Advanced Mobility Arkansas

FLIPspace: Advanced Mobility Arkansas offers a unique opportunity to transform transportation across the state by tapping into the power of federal intellectual property (IP). With exclusive access to innovative technologies and patents sourced from federal research labs across the U.S., you’ll work alongside other passionate innovators to solve real transportation challenges—whether that is designing reliable options for rural communities, creating eco-friendly solutions to cut emissions, or reimagining how people and goods move across urban and remote areas. FLIPspace is a seven-month program tailored for Arkansas-based postgraduates, faculty, university staff, and administrators who are driven to make an impact. You don’t need a technical background in advanced mobility—just curiosity and a willingness to tackle real-world problems. Apply solo or with colleagues, and you’ll be matched with other dedicated participants to form a three-person team.

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Scale For ClimateTech, Cohort 6

Scale For ClimateTech provides support throughout the manufacturing process, ensuring that founders have confidence in their path to the market, make fewer mistakes, and can scale up production to meet demand. From early Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and prototype refinement to negotiating partner and supplier agreements, as well as managing logistics, Scale For ClimateTech is dedicated to helping you navigate time-sensitive, critical decisions throughout the entire manufacturing process. Companies do not need to manufacture in New York to be eligible to participate in the program
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Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2)

The Regional Resilience Innovation Incubators (R2I2) is a cross-directorate NSF solicitation led by the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) and the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). R2I2 will support community- engaged team science to co-design high-impact solutions to climate-related societal challenges that leverage recent advances in fundamental climate change and Earth system science research. Each R2I2 project will address specific regional climate challenges and will develop and demonstrate solutions to those challenges that can be effectively applied in real- world settings. Investment in R2I2 will leverage past federal investments in addressing climate change and will provide a bridge connecting advancements in basic science with local knowledge, informed decision making, and technological innovations for societal applications.

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Breakthrough Energy Fellows

Hailing from around the world, BE Fellows are focused on technologies that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases, at scale, by at least 500 million tons per year. Technologies supported to date include high-impact areas such as hydrogen, electrofuels, steel, cement, food and agriculture, energy storage, nuclear fusion, carbon dioxide capture, storage and sequestration. The Breakthrough Energy Fellows program has three pathways, defined as follows:

  • Innovator Fellows are world-leading scientists and engineers who enter the program with a critical climate technology to commercialize.
  • Business Fellows are experienced professionals with tech commercialization skills who support the Innovator Fellows in accelerating their path to market.
  • Explorers receive funding for earlier stage, higher technical risk endeavors. These projects are typically led by scientists at university labs or research entities.
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The Deployment Engine

Connecting breakthrough building decarbonization technologies with industry experts and end-users to accelerate market adoption in Appalachia. Our priority is matching startups with the industry expertise and guidance they need from mentors, not their flashy corporate logos. We focus on maximizing alignment, skills, and network depth to provide exceptional mentorship during our programming and beyond for a people first approach to decarbonization.

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PowerNorth Incubator (Minnesota)

Are you an innovator? Do you have an emerging business or solution related to energy, climate, sustainability, or cleantech? Are you ready to take your innovation or business to the next level? The PowerNorth Virtual Incubator is a 10-week program tailored for early-stage energy and cleantech entrepreneurs in Minnesota.

By the end of the program, participants will have refined their business strategies and built valuable industry connections. The program concludes with a pitch event where participants will showcase their venture to a curated audience of investors, entrepreneurial support organizations, and key partners, unlocking new opportunities for collaboration and investment.

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ACORE Accelerate Membership Program

ACORE Accelerate members work on solutions in wind, solar, battery storage, hydrokinetic energy, and more. They are women and BIPOC-led businesses committed to creating good-quality jobs and sustaining impact in their communities. Members include manufacturers, project developers, professional service providers and consultants. ACORE hosts an annual call for applications and selects up to 10 Accelerate members per cohort. Over the two-year program, Accelerate members receive complimentary access to paid events, exclusive briefings, tools and advocacy. Members build relationships across ACORE’s influential network of financial institutions, major corporate clean energy buyers, utilities, academic institutions, and allied nonprofit groups and are eligible to serve a year-long term on ACORE’s Board of Directors. At the end of the program, members receive access to continued benefits as members of the Accelerate alumni network.

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