The information below is provided as a resource for those interested in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Building Technology Office (BTO). BTO cannot support or fund all buildings related technology or projects. In these cases, the information below could be helpful and is tailored to focus on additional resources for the buildings related sector. Each section is divided into a link to an organization or program under “Where do I go?” as well as background on that organization or program under “What is it?”
Disclaimer: This information is not comprehensive and is only updated periodically. By providing this information, DOE is not endorsing any of the below organizations or programs.
Return to the Technology-to-Market Initiative webpage to explore further resources.
Training and Mentoring | |
Where do I go? | What is it? |
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) BUILD4Scale Manufacturing Training for Cleantech Entrepreneurs | The Build4Scale Manufacturing Training for Cleantech Entrepreneurs (Build4Scale) provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to identify and address manufacturing challenges early in the process. Build4Scale will train cleantech entrepreneurs on the fundamentals of manufacturing, providing them with the tools and information they need to bring their promising energy solutions to market. |
The Energy I-Corps Program pairs teams of laboratory researchers with industry mentors for an intensive two-month training where the researchers define technology value propositions, conduct customer discovery interviews, and develop viable market pathways for their technologies. Researchers return to the lab with a framework for industry engagement to guide future research and inform a culture of market awareness within the labs. In this way, Energy I-Corps is ensuring DOE investment in the national labs is maintaining and strengthening U.S. competitiveness long-term. | |
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program | The National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory, and accelerates the economic and societal benefits of NSF-funded, basic-research projects that are ready to move toward commercialization. Through I-Corps, NSF grantees learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs. |
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) – Bay Area Regional Node | The Bay Area NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) is a collaboration between the University of California Berkeley, University of California San Francisco and Stanford University and funded by the National Science Foundation that offers educational programs to accelerate the commercialization of science and fosters technology entrepreneurship nationally. |
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) – DC Regional Node | DC I-Corps is a regional program designed to foster, grow and nurture an innovation ecosystem in the nation’s capital, the nearby states of Maryland and Virginia, and the mid-Atlantic region. The program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and jointly run by the University of Maryland College Park, George Washington University, Virginia Tech, and Johns Hopkins University. The program provides real world, hands-on training on how to successfully incorporate innovations into successful products. The ultimate goal is to create a new venture or licensing opportunity for program participants. |
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) – Innovation-Node LA (IN-LA) | Innovation-Node Los Angeles (IN-LA) is a collaboration of the University of Southern California (USC), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It is supported partially through the NSF Innovation Corps (“I-Corps”) Program to accelerate technology commercialization, support engineering entrepreneurship and educate innovation leadership. IN-LA offers leading educational programs, world-class research, support for new ventures, and ecosystem-developing programs to link innovators with capital and other resources. |
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) – Midwest Regional Node | I-Corps Midwest Node brings together the University of Michigan (UM) as the lead institution, and the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne, and Purdue University as partner institutions. This Node is uniquely suited to serve the Midwest entrepreneurial ecosystem by bridging rural communication gaps that typically lead to an uninformed commercial opportunity around research inventions, difficulty in retaining and accessing talent with sufficient breadth of specific and relevant expertise, and instilling customer discovery memory across I-Corps programs allowing entrepreneurial researchers to leverage learning from previous I-Corps teams. |
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) – NYC Regional Node | The New York City Regional Innovation Node (NYCRIN) is a network of over 25 leading universities in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania area designed to support regional needs for innovation education, infrastructure and research by providing state-of-the-art training for academic researchers and technologists through the National Science Foundation I-Corps program. NYCRIN will work cooperatively to build, utilize and sustain a national innovation ecosystem that further enhances the development of technologies, products and processes that benefit society. |
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) – South Regional Node | The I-Corps South Regional Program brings together Georgia Tech, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Birmingham, and the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Teams are taught the strategies for creating a business thesis and hypotheses about a business model. These hypotheses are then tested in a specific market segment through conducting customer interviews. |
Through the combined entrepreneurial experience and research capabilities of four leading research institutions in Texas, Southwest I-Corps supports and connects young scientists, leading faculty and the greater business community across the Texas and Southwest region in testing their funded research for potential commercial applications through national and regional I-Corps programming. | |
The Upstate New York I-Corps Node combines the experience of the nation’s top university R&D region with the entrepreneurial knowledge of experienced mentors and faculty. The Node acts as a hub for commercialization training in the Northeast, connecting skilled researchers to valuable resources through national and regional I-Corps programming. | |