On Aug. 11, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) hosted a virtual showcase in which researchers from the DOE national labs presented the projects they conducted through the Seedlings Program. This program, which WPTO established in 2019, has provided more than 60 smaller funding awards to national lab researchers—often junior researchers—to explore new projects and creative ideas in marine energy and hydropower.

During the four-hour event, 41 researchers presented 39 projects and their solutions, failures, and lessons to an audience of more than 150 attendees that included peers, WPTO staff, industry stakeholders, and the general public. By providing a platform for researchers to exhibit their work, the showcase increased the visibility of several projects led by DOE’s national laboratories and WPTO’s novel funding mechanism.