The AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge is a global $100 million initiative from the Bezos Earth Fund. The Grand Challenge is exploring new ideas for multiplying the impact of climate and nature efforts using modern AI. The first round of awards will focus on sustainable proteins, power grid optimization, and biodiversity conservation, in addition to embracing visionary wildcard solutions for climate and nature. The Bezos Earth Fund will determine the final slate of Seed Grantees who will be invited to participate in Phase 2.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the Fiscal Year 2024 Solar Energy Supply Chain Incubator funding opportunity (FOA), which will provide up to $38 million for research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects that de-risk solar hardware, manufacturing processes, and software products across a wide range of solar technology areas. The research and development (R&D) and demonstration (RD&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will support the DOE decarbonization goals by advancing innovative solar hardware, software, and manufacturing processes across a broad range of technology readiness levels, from laboratory-scale to pilot-scale testing and prototype demonstration. Technologies of interest include photovoltaics (PV), systems integration, and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) technologies, as well as those that connect solar with storage or electric vehicles and dual-use PV applications like agrivoltaics and vehicle-integrated PV. SETO encourages for-profit applicants to team with diverse institutions including academic institutions, non-profits, state and local governments, and Tribal governments. The FOA also seeks projects that provide outreach, education, or technology development for software that delivers an automated permit review and approval process for rooftop solar PV with or without energy storage. Both for-profit and non-profit entities are eligible to apply under this topic. SETO expects to make between 11 and 23 awards ranging from $1 million to $5 million under this FOA. Learn more about past Incubator funding program awardees.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Science (FES) program is embarking on a transformative initiative aimed at creating a fusion innovation ecosystem, the “Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE)”, by forming virtual, centrally managed teams called “Collaboratives”, that have a collective goal of bridging FES’s basic science research programs and growing fusion industries, including the activities supported under the FES milestone-based fusion development program. At its core, FIRE represents a departure from traditional science programs. It is structured as a framework comprised of Collaboratives with the purpose of bridging the gap between foundational science and practical application. These Collaboratives are envisioned as dynamic hubs of innovation, driving advancements in fusion energy research in collaboration with both public and private entities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) are seeking research proposals for a funding opportunity that will drive innovations at the intersection of human health, climate-smart agriculture, and social justice, equity, and opportunity to advance nutrition security. The “Nourishing Next Generation Agrifood Breakthroughs” Innovation Challenge will fund early-career scientists (within 10 years of receiving a Ph.D. or equivalent degree) to lead highly collaborative, interdisciplinary teams on groundbreaking research that addresses nutrition security.

With the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize, teams of creative individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses will advance conceptual solutions to prototypes and finally to pilot validations to address challenges with the lithium-ion battery recycling supply chain. This new public contest aims to incentivize new submissions from battery industry entrepreneurs that demonstrate innovative solutions that work toward or deliver on the goal of the prize, while continuing to support the further development of Phase III winning solutions. This phase consists of two simultaneous competition tracks:

• Track 1: New Competitors —Legal business entities based in the United States with single process ideas, partial solutions or full concept solutions that enable or meet the prize goal. Track 1 is open to new participants and previous competitors of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize. A single business entity may participate as a new competitor, or teams may be comprised of multiple businesses.
• Track 2: Verified Competitors — Phase III winners are invited to further develop their concept solutions with the added support of a $100,000 noncash voucher to be spent at a Voucher Service Provider within the American-Made Network. Voucher work must support the continued validation and demonstration of their Phase III pilot-scale solutions.

The Electronics Scrap Recycling Advancement Prize (E-SCRAP) is a $3.95M challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). The prize aims to stimulate innovative approaches that reduce the costs and environmental impact of critical material recovery from electronic scrap (e-scrap).

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office launched the Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC) in 2014. The CWC helps multidisciplinary teams of undergraduate students prepare for jobs in wind and renewable energy through the following activities:

• The Turbine Prototype Contest & Turbine Testing Contest, in which teams design, build, and present a unique, wind-driven power system based on market research and test the wind turbine in an on-site wind tunnel.
• The Project Development Contest, in which teams research wind resource data, transmission infrastructure, and environmental factors to create a site plan and financial analysis for a hypothetical wind farm.
• The Connection Creation Contest, in which teams conduct outreach with the wind energy industry, their local communities, and local media outlets to raise wind energy awareness and promote their accomplishments.

BRIDGE stands for “Business Resources to Innovate, Develop, Grow and Excel” and through the NY-BEST BRIDGE Program, NY-BEST is providing battery and energy storage start-ups and businesses the tools and resources they need to successfully grow their companies. The Program was made possible through funding support from National Grid. Participating companies and ventures will receive direct one-on-one assistance from NY-BEST’s expert team.

With Halliburton Labs in your corner, you’ll have help preparing to demonstrate your technology at scale, derisk first customers, achieve your commercialization milestones—and attract investors who believe in you as much as we do. The first 12 months of our journey together starts with a customized playbook focused on your unique scaling milestones—from there, we’ll help you hit them. Expertise is what a person knows; experience is what they’ve done. Your future team at Halliburton Labs has both. Our practitioners perform day jobs delivering budgets, quality, reliability, safety, and results, while leading teams that manage inflation, supply chain disruptions, hiring, and other bumps in the road.

This eight-week intensive program prepares startups for the partnerships and investment necessary to launch their venture. We are partnering with entrepreneurship hub TechTown Detroit to deliver this programming, which aims to help entrepreneurs bridge the gap between customer discovery and commercial launch. We’ve refined our process to help deep-tech companies over the last 27+ years and bring this focused opportunity with support of the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Prize from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT).

The Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative—a unique partnership among Urban Future Lab at New York University-Tandon, Greentown Labs, and Fraunhofer USA, is unlocking a new carbontech economy, bringing innovative solutions to scale as rapidly as possible through the creation of a robust, powerful, and collaborative new ecosystem. Building on its first three successful years supported by NYSERDA, which saw nearly 400 applications and supported 26 selected startups (Cohorts 1-3) that have raised over $410M in follow-on funding, leading to partnership engagements and 200+ business relationships, technology advancement, and industry growth, Year 4 of the C2V Initiative returns with an in-depth corporate advisor program, new pivotal CLC members spanning a wide breadth of the carbontech ecosystem, and an integrated DEI and community-centered curriculum component.