Bloomberg Philanthropies and Kapwa Consulting recently announced the Climate Challenge Justice 40 Capacity Building Fund (J40 Fund). The purpose of the J40 Fund is to provide funding to support community-based organizations to engage and partner with their local government to advance community-led projects that align with the Justice40 Initiative.

Investment areas include: clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and the development of critical clean water infrastructure.

The fund is managed by Kapwa Consulting, LLC, who will issue approved awards as direct professional service subcontracts to qualified contractors. Contract amounts for community-based organizations are estimated to be up to $30,000. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the pool of funds is depleted; to apply to Round 3, do so by April 14th.

Entrepreneurs & Researchers: C2M is now accepting climate tech applications — low-carbon energy, green chemistry, food, and water technologies covering both mitigation and adaptation — for its 2022 cohort. For those technologies selected, interdisciplinary, hand-picked teams of UC Berkeley grad students will help identify the most viable initial markets, prospective customers and partners, funding sources, and related strategies. Each project receives approximately 1,000 hours of free commercialization assessment.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeks to empower regions to harness the benefits of a clean energy future. This FOA supports multiple avenues for localities to improve their energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and bolster their local workforce through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) projects for renewable-fueled energy systems and technical assistance to support manufacturers in adopting innovative, smart technologies to help better manage their energy use.

Under this FOA, DOE will provide up to $7.5 million to support activities that drive innovation, deployment, and technical assistance activities for clean energy technologies that are critical for climate protection under two topics:

Topic Area 1: Advanced Technology Demonstration in a Renewably Supplied District Energy System

Topic Area 2: Regional Initiative to Integrate Smart Manufacturing and Energy Management Systems

Shell UK has announced a new program for energy start-ups – Shell StartUp Engine UK – in partnership with Unreasonable Group (Unreasonable). The program focuses on scale and growth-stage start-ups that are best placed to accelerate a fair and just energy transition, improve access to energy and help consumers make smarter energy choices. CEOs of these start-ups will benefit from high-profile mentorship, access to potential investors and partners, and being part of the Shell and Unreasonable start-up communities.

• Facilitate networking between members, advisors and their external stakeholders;
• Create new business opportunities for members;
• Share awareness of, and access to, sources of funding;
• Share knowledge and best practices about business and impact
• Create new visibility opportunities for members, locally and internationally.

ARPA-E’s Performance-based Energy Resource Feedback, Optimization, and Risk Management (PERFORM) program intends to quantify grid management risks at the asset and system levels, leading to a transformative grid system with reduced costs and improved reliability. Applicants are expected to give technically relevant innovative solutions targeting areas like: (i) bulk and distribution systems, (ii) centralized and decentralized paradigms, and (iii) vertically integrated utilities, markets, and peer-to-peer transactive energy systems.

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The Mentor Capital Network (MCN) identifies entrepreneurs with solutions to solve world’s social, economic, and environmental problems and supports by connecting them with peers and advisers from within its network. Interested applicants must go through a 3-tier process involving Business plan review, Challenge calls, Direct fundraising assistance or Indirect support. Selected participants would be eligible for networking with alumni and other forms of assistance.

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Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) offers a two-year fellowship for innovators focusing on clean energy and science technologies. Through an annual call for innovators, four to six individuals will be selected to join CRI. Program participants will receive the financial and technical support needed to perform early-stage research and development (R&D) that may launch energy or manufacturing businesses in the future.

• Fellowship stipend of $115k per year for two years plus healthcare benefits
• Non-dilutive funding for de-risking technological innovations
• Access to technical experts, facilities, and unique capabilities at Argonne National Laboratory
• Networking access to business experts, investors, mentors, and corporate partners
• Argonne takes no equity stake

In an effort to assist clean energy innovators to create manufacturing-ready prototypes, the DOE is providing the Build4Scale training program. The self-paced eight-module training provides the knowledge needed to assess manufacturing readiness, evaluate smart product design, and engage with manufacturing partners. Organizations and individuals involved in American manufacturing and technology innovation including energy hardware technologists: scientists, engineers, students, and innovators are requested to utilize this opportunity.

CECET (along with NYSERDA) is working towards clean energy technology advancement through funding support and technical assistance. Interested candidates would receive expert guidance in product design, R&D, evaluation and advisory support, in addition to laboratory testing facility to a number of clean technologies like Wind, Solar, Geothermal, etc.

The DOE has expressed interest in research proposals around topics of scientific or technical merit and feasibility of ideas with commercial potential and in line with DOE mission research. The period of performance should not exceed 12 months and only the awardees of Phase-I would proceed to Phase-II. Approximately 40% of phase-I awardees would be awarded phase-II awards.

The DOE is soliciting proposals from people involved in competitive research in areas of science and technology. The preliminary areas of interest are Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fuel Cell Technologies, Solar Energy Technologies and Nuclear energy.