Applications open for NatLabs’ innovators for Chain Reaction Innovations: 2 year support deals
In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, opened the application process to select the first national cohort of innovators for Chain Reaction Innovations.
CRI is the second energy and science technology accelerator to open at a national laboratory and the first one located in the Midwest, a hub of energy technology innovation. Part of EERE’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs, CRI is sponsored by the Advanced Manufacturing Office and co-managed in collaboration with the Technology-to-Market office. Entrepreneurs selected into the two-year program will have up to $350,000 to use on research at Argonne National Laboratory and up to $100,000 in a fellowship that covers living costs, benefits and a travel stipend.
To help entrepreneurs bridge this commercialization valley of death, CRI will support cutting-edge innovators to work on early-stage technologies that can deliver game-changing impact to the energy industry.
Chain Reaction Innovations will provide innovators access to Argonne’s deep network of 1,600 multidisciplinary researchers and engineers. In addition, the research may involve Argonne’s DOE Office of Science User Facilities, such as the Mira supercomputer and the Advanced Photon Source, the nation’s highest-energy X-ray source. Through a partnership with mentor organizations in the Midwest, CRI participants will also receive assistance with developing business strategies, conducting market research and finding long-term financing and commercial partners.
Fast access to tools at Argonne, including fabrication, validation and scale-up facilities, and predictive modeling tools can reduce costly and time-consuming trial-and-error testing, enable faster development pivots and provide benchmarks of product performance to increase consumer and investor confidence.
Category: Research
