Ribbon cutting ceremony for the Chain Reaction Innovations program launch. From left to right: Dr. David Danielson, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Dr. Peter Littlewood, Director of Argonne National Laboratory; Dr. Mark Johnson, Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; and Dr. Andreas Roelofs, Director of Chain Reaction Innovations.

Investing in our best and brightest entrepreneurs is crucial to the transition to a global clean energy economy. Despite having great ideas, many innovators run into barriers during early stage development of new ideas and struggle to get new technologies to market. To address these barriers, the Department of Energy (DOE) has established Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs (LEEP), which are sponsored by the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) and managed in collaboration with the Technology-to-Market office. These programs provide innovators the technical support needed to advance challenging science and clean energy technologies to the proof-of-concept stage where they can launch into the marketplace. LEEP is modeled after a successful pilot project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) called Cyclotron Road, which attracted $5 million in private sector follow-on funding and multiple awards for innovators in the first cohort.

On Tuesday, May 24 DOE and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) announced a new innovation accelerator, the first LEEP expansion based on the Cyclotron Road pilot, called Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) in the Chicago area. Chain Reaction Innovations will provide innovators access to Argonne's deep network of 1,400 multidisciplinary researchers and engineers as well as unique tools, including the Mira supercomputer and the nation's highest-energy X-ray source, the Advanced Photon Source. Through a partnership with mentor organizations, CRI participants will also receive assistance with developing business strategies, conducting market research, and finding long-term financing and commercial partners. Chicago and the greater Midwest is a great place to launch CRI because of the access to national laboratories, top tier universities, and an active investment community.

ANL is a tremendous resource for would-be entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams in accelerating the creation of transformative products focused on energy, manufacturing, and sustainability. We’re excited about the strong team of people behind CRI including Peter Littlewood, Director of Argonne National Laboratory and Andreas Roelofs, Director of Chain Reaction Innovations. CRI mentors and innovators can also look forward to DOE support from Johanna Wolfson, Technology-to-Market Director and Nick Litombe, a fellow in our office. Johanna and Nick worked with the team at LBNL to establish guidelines and best practices which can help LEEP expansions such as CRI continue the same success. Strong mentorship paired with the world-class research and development support at ANL will create unparalleled access to an innovation ecosystem for CRI entrepreneurs.   

CRI is currently accepting applications for mentors and pre-applications for innovators. More information on the application process is available here.

To read the full press release on the launch of the Chain Reaction Innovations accelerator program, click here.