NASA SBIR Ignite looks to increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R/R&D, thereby increasing competition, productivity, and economic growth. In particular, NASA seeks to fund ideas that are relevant in the commercial market, while contributing to the agency’s goals in aeronautics and space technology development.

Entrepreneurs looking to shape the aerospace market are encouraged to apply. The program de-risks technology by providing funding to help push R&D, making it more attractive to investors. NASA does not take ownership over award recipients’ intellectual property.

Phase I provides $150,000 with the ability to win Phase II follow-on funding of $1,000,000 per business. The SBIR Ignite Solicitation will be opened in summer 2022; check here for updates.

Each year, Women in Cleantech and Sustainability hosts a startup pitch competition focused on spotlighting companies led by women, either as CEOs or in the C-suite. Six applicants will be selected to pitch their ideas on the WCS stage in front of Silicon Valley VCs and an audience of 300+ industry professionals.

Women from six companies will be selected out of all applications to pitch their innovative cleantech or sustainable-focused business idea to a panel of industry leaders. Startups will have 5 minutes on the virtual stage followed by 3 minutes for Q&A from the judges. Winners will be announced towards the end of the conference.  The winner will be offered consultation time with local Marketing, PR, Accounting, VCs, and relevant industry experts.

Lacuna Fund provides data scientists, researchers, and social entrepreneurs with the resources they need to either produce new labeled datasets to address an underserved population or problem, augment existing datasets to be more representative, or update old datasets to be more sustainable.

Lacuna Fund seeks proposals from organizations interested in developing datasets for equitable climate outcomes in climate & energy and climate & health.

The High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Program seeks qualified industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Laboratories. HPC4EI is the umbrella initiative for the HPC4Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) and HPC4Materials (HPC4Mtls) Programs. DOE’s HPC4Mfg Program is interested in establishing collaborations that address key energy and decarbonization related challenges for domestic manufacturers. The HPC4Mfg Program is designed to improve manufacturing processes, address products’ lifecycle energy consumption, and increase the efficiency of energy conversion and storage technologies by providing access to national lab supercomputing resources and expertise for high performance computing projects.

Enter one or more of this year’s challenges for the chance to win cash prizes and move on to the finals, where our panel of judges will decide on the grand prize winner!

Upcoming challenges include:

• Reuse, Recycle, Revamp (May 1 – June 12):
• Hack it Back (June 12 – July 24)
• Climate Resilient Communities (July 24 – September 4)
• Save the World Wildcard (September 4 – October 16)

Prizes include: 1st place – $50,000 + Supplyframe DesignLab Residency, 2nd place –  $20,000, 3rd place – $15,000, 4th place – $10,000,5th place – $5,000. Top 50 finalists will win $500.

We will provide approximately 200 buildings worth of time-series data from the RTEM database. This database supports key commercial real estate stakeholders and market influencers in identifying, prioritizing and implementing energy conservation, decarbonization and electrification opportunities.

We seek submissions that propose novel use cases for the provided data set. Be creative. Ideal submissions are those use cases that positively impact or accelerate the electrification and decarbonization of New York State commercial and multi-family buildings.

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 vouches!

Phase II will open in December 2022 and close in October 2023. Both new and repeat applicants are eligible to submit design and proof-of-concept for their technologies. Up to 5 finalists will receive $350,000 in cash prizes and vouchers.

Phase III will open in December 2023 and close in March 2025. In this phase, teams will prototype and test their Phase II designs. Up to 2 winners will receive a $350,000 cash prize.

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 vouches!

Phase II will open in December 2022 and close in October 2023. Both new and repeat applicants are eligible to submit design and proof-of-concept for their technologies. Up to 5 finalists will receive $350,000 in cash prizes and vouchers.

Looking forward, 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 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 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