The Advanced Manufacturing Office supported 11 projects, the highest among all R&D areas offered
Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the 38 small businesses that will collaborate with national lab researchers through the Small Business Vouchers (SBV) pilot. Eight DOE national laboratories will be supported to partner with 38 competitively selected small businesses across the country. In the first two rounds of the program, 12 DOE national labs have been supported to partner with 76 small businesses. With last week’s announcement, SBV will have forged partnerships between 114 American small businesses from across the nation and the National Laboratories.
Launched by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the Small Business Vouchers (SBV) program matches meritorious small businesses with scientific experts from the national labs—providing the businesses vouchers valued up to $300K that they can exchange for national lab research and development. This world-class research assistance will focus on specific technical challenges identified by small businesses and deliver solutions intended to lower the barriers for moving the energy economy toward greater commercial success.
The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) with EERE, supports approximately $2.4 million in this third round of small business vouchers. AMO will award eleven vouchers, the highest among all of the R&D areas offered.
These advanced manufacturing projects will focus on ways to improve manufacturing processes specifically by developing more efficient production methods for alloys, microchannel heat exchangers, semiconductors, extreme ultraviolet materials, nanocrystals, and lithium ion materials among others. Six national laboratories will work with small businesses on this research. The results of which will help scale-up production methods and improve the efficiency of existing manufacturing processes.
The list of small businesses and National Laboratory partners include:
- GDC Industries, LLC and Argonne National Laboratory
- Vacuum Process Engineering, Inc. and Sandia National Laboratory
- BASiC 3C, Inc. and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Astrileux Corporation and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- ThermoAura Inc. and Argonne National Laboratory
- Lilac Solutions, Inc. and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Peroxygen Systems, Inc. and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Redox Power Systems and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- InnaVenture and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Iris PV and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Inpria Corporation and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Read more about these advanced manufacturing projects and the full list of finalist summaries here.
The new collaborations with small businesses will also focus on other energy technology areas including, Bioenergy, Buildings, Fuel Cells, Geothermal, Solar, Vehicles, Water and Wind.
Small Business Vouchers (SBV) is part of the Tech-to-Market Program within DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Tech-to-Market is focused on strengthening the innovation ecosystem by eliminating common barriers that prevent market exploration of new energy technologies.
EERE's Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) supports applied research and development of new materials, information, and processes that improve American manufacturing’s energy efficiency, as well as platform technologies for manufacturing clean energy products. Technology innovation through research and development in manufacturing and energy is a foundation for economic growth and jobs for the future. AMO works closely with EERE’s Technology-to-Market Program on initiatives that accelerate clean energy technology innovation and commercialization. A full list of SBV projects and participating DOE national labs is available at www.SBV.org.