Communications Standards Updates: Awardee Communications Guidelines

Notifications about changes made to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE's) communications standards will be posted regularly, highlighting the latest updates to the Communications Standards website and important pages to note. 

Today, we’re taking a look at requirements and best practices for DOE and EERE awardees. EERE maintains standards for and provides resources to awardees to help them build awareness of their work. 

Awardee Communications Guidelines

Awardees should make sure to meet the following guidelines for communications related to their DOE and EERE-funded work:

• All communications should follow EERE's style guide for anything published by EERE, which contains the guidelines for print and web publications. 
  • Amplification posted by another organization can follow their style guide.
• EERE publications should also defer to EERE branding guidelines.
• EERE communications must and all communications should also meet Section 508 requirements, including ensuring videos have captions and following graphic accessibility guidelines. 
• Awardees should follow DOE guidelines on proper use of the awardee brand and logo. 
• All EERE-funded reports are required to include an attribution to the sponsoring program at the program or subprogram level, following EERE’s established guidelines. 
• Presentations related to projects funded DOE require both the DOE awardee logo and a verbal and written acknowledgment of DOE as the funder of the project or study. 
• All publications with any level of scientific or technical information must be submitted directly to the Office of Science and Technical Information through its E-Link portal.

Awardees are encouraged to create press releases and social media content related to their awards and research, but should notify their technology manager and office's communication team, especially if they anticipate significant media attention from a major achievement or high-profile partners. DOE’s Office of Public Affairs team is also available to review press releases associated with DOE-funded projects prior to their release to the media.

Awardees may repost relevant DOE content, as most content produced by DOE and EERE is in the public domain and can be freely distributed and copied. However, this content should still be credited and attributed to DOE, in a prominent location with a link to the original content, if it is reused or reposted in any form.

Questions?           

If you have any questions or suggestions related to communications standards, please email the EERE Comms Standards Team.