Lab Call: Apply for $44M in Funding for Critical Energy Innovation Technologies

On November 14, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a Core Laboratory Infrastructure for Market Readiness (CLIMR) Lab Call to seek applications for the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24). This is the primary lab call for Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) Base Annual Appropriations for FY24. Only DOE national laboratories and DOE plants and sites are eligible for funding from this lab call. Based on FY23, an estimated $37.7M–$44.7M is expected to be available to fund all projects solicited in this lab call pending FY24 appropriations and program direction. 

The FY24 CLIMR Lab Call represents the combined effort of Building Technologies Office (BTO) and Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) alongside 13 different DOE program offices, marking the highest number of participating offices in a CLIMR Lab Call to date. This lab call is funded by the Base Annual Appropriations Technology Commercialization Fund, which aims to bridge the gap between national laboratories and private industry that prevent many lab-developed technologies from reaching commercialization. This funding serves to improve America’s energy competitiveness and security by accelerating commercialization and shepherding critical energy technologies from the national labs to the market, where the private sector will continue to innovate.

All applications must be submitted to DOE from each lab’s respective Office of Research and Technology Application (ORTA) Technology Transfer Offices (TTO). Applicants are encouraged to propose projects, in collaboration with nonfederal partners, within six topic areas:

• Market Needs Assessment: Identify and analyze emerging market needs and integrate findings into a strategy to maximize success of technology commercialization from national labs.
• Curation of Intellectual Property (IP): Innovate how labs connect their IP to promising partners in the private sector.
• Matchmaking: Create or expand business incubation programming that will result in the creation of teams to commercialize national lab-developed technologies.
• Technology Specific Partnerships: Advance the market pathway for individual energy-related national lab-developed technology that is ready to generate private sector interest.
• Enhancing Laboratory Processes: Provide a more united, consistent approach to engaging external partners lab-wide and catalyzing synergies.
• Increasing Partnerships with External Commercialization Parties: Improve how labs attract, recruit, and retain external partners to further develop and commercialize technologies by decreasing barriers to working with the labs, increasing the number and diversity of private sector partners, and accelerating to deepen connectivity with external commercialization parties.

Interested private partners can reach out to national lab TTOs directly or sign up to partner on the public teaming partner list. Details on both can be found in the Lab Call. All applicants must submit concept papers and full application through eXCHANGE to be considered for funding. The deadline to submit concept papers is January 16, 2024, at 3 p.m. ET. and the deadline to submit full applications is March 14, 2024, at 3 p.m. ET. DOE expects to make selection notifications in the third quarter of FY24. See OTT’s FY24 CLIMR Lab Call announcement for additional details.

For general information on the Technology Commercialization Fund, visit OTT's website, and read more about Base Annual Appropriations.