WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced that the Department of Energy will award 263 grants totaling $116 million to 184 small businesses in 40 states.  Funded through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, today’s selections are for both Phase I and II research and development.  

There are 174 Phase I grants, which will allow small businesses to research technical feasibility of new innovations that advance the Department’s mission.  Phase I grants are 6-12 months in duration with a median award amount of $150,000.  In addition, 89 Phase II grants will go to prior Phase I grantees to allow them to develop novel prototypes or processes to validate their Phase I research findings. Up to two years in duration, Phase II grants have a median award amount of $1 million. 

Highlighted below are selected grants for each of the research and development programs that provided funding for these projects:

  • Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
    • Long-range Millimeter Wave Passive Tags
    • Electrostatic Precipitation System for Radionuclide Particle Collection
  • Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
    • Rapid Assessment of Distribution Line Damage via Autonomous UAV
    • Application and Communication Platform for Smart Grid Automation
  • Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
    • Wave-Powered Desalination System
    • Engineered Silicon for Improved-Performance EV Batteries
    • Advanced, Low-Cost Indoor Heat Exchanger for Geothermal Heat Pump Systems
    • Fractionation and Dehydration of Existing Feedstocks for Biomass and Biopower Production
    • Photothermal Solar Cell
  • Office of Environmental Management
    • Removable, Sequestration Coatings for Mitigating Hazardous Contaminants Related to Deactivation and Decommissioning Activities
  • Office of Fossil Energy
    • Sensor for Direct, Rapid, and Complete Elemental Analysis of Coal
    • Cost Effective Optical Seismic System for Hydraulic Fracture Diagnostics
  • Office of Fusion Energy Sciences
    • High-Temperature Superconducting Cables for Compact Fusion Reactors
    • Additive Manufacture of Tungsten Armored Plasma Facing Components
  • Office of High Energy Physics
    • Picosecond Timing Measurement IC for Particle Physics Experiments
    • Low Emittance High Brightness Electron Source for Wakefield Accelerators
    • Ultra Low Background Time Projection Alpha Particle Detector
  • Office of Nuclear Energy
    • Development of a Precise Remote Sealing Technique for Dry Nuclear Storage Casks
    • High Resolving Power, Broadband Spectroscopy for Nuclear Materials Control

Small businesses play a major role in spurring innovation, creating jobs, and boosting the U.S. economy.  The SBIR and STTR programs were created by Congress to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies. Additional information on the DOE SBIR and STTR programs is available HERE.

More information about the projects announced today is available HERE.

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