The Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Fall Energy I-Corps (EIC) program continues to offer Topic 1: Pipeline Development and Topic 3: Post Energy I-Corps, in addition to the immersive training curriculum within Topic 2: Training Cohort.
Find information about selected teams and technologies for Topic 2: Training Cohort 21.
Under Topic 1, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Labs, plants, and sites propose projects aimed at increasing their researchers' participation in future training cohorts. Under Topic 3, researchers who have completed EIC’s immersive training in Topic 2 apply for additional assistance to aid in bringing their technology to market.
Topic 1: Pipeline Development
Four projects from six National Labs were selected for FY 2026 Fall Topic 1. The selected projects aim to provide entrepreneurial training to researcher participants across the United States. Industry partners, universities, local businesses, students, and EIC alumni will provide additional resources to participants.
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will host an entrepreneurial training program called the Fermilab Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Practicum. This practicum will be conducted as a short course over a 2-month period, including eight 2-hour modules, and will retain several key elements from prior years. Some key elements of the practicum will include a team-based workshop approach, a mix of in-house and guest instructors to provide participants with a diversity of viewpoints, and a capstone presentation in front of a panel of experts.
Funded by the Office of Science’s High Energy Physics program.
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will partner with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to host the Multi-Lab Energy I-Corps Pipeline Development Program to increase awareness of and participation in EIC. The program will be led by INL using a hub-and-spoke model whereby INL will provide overall content and instruction as the “hub,” and BNL and SRNL will act as “spokes,” each providing local mentorship and specialized support. Programmatic content will be developed and agreed upon by the labs to ensure the most relevant topics are covered to effectively meet the needs of program participants. This arrangement allows for dynamic instruction and feedback in addition to increased opportunities for networking, collaboration, and partnering among laboratory participants.
Funded by the Office of Technology Commercialization.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will team with Washington State University (WSU) Tri-Cities and other local entrepreneurial support organizations to offer the PNNL Innovation Pipeline. This training opportunity will be available for PNNL researchers and WSU students and will build on the momentum of past pipeline courses.
All participants will be required to take a Value Proposition workshop to learn about technologies. Then, student teams will continue to expand on the concepts with research teams joining for relevant sessions based on need and availability. This flexibility will allow the program to be customizable based on interest and availability of researchers, students, and instructors.
Funded by the Office of Technology Commercialization.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will host the 2026 EIC Pipeline Development Activities program to support a cohort of NREL researchers covering the EIC curriculum model. Instructors will cover Business Model Canvas, Ecosystem Modeling, Value Propositions, Partnerships, Customer Discovery, Introduction to Market Sizing, and Metrics That Matter.
Funded by the Office of Technology Commercialization.
Topic 3: Post Energy I-Corps
Topic 3 supports the advancement of technologies researchers took through the Topic 2 training program that have demonstrated a high likelihood of commercialization. The funds are intended to cover the cost of the next actionable step in their commercialization journey and to help awardees reach their next source of more substantive funding.
Team 161: GalileoA graduate of EIC Cohort 13 in 2021, the goal of Galileo’s project is to expedite the commercialization of Argonne National Laboratory’s in situ physics-of-failure analysis technology by developing a customized failure-analysis test platform. The target customer segment is power-electronic device engineers who would benefit from a tailored lifetime analysis platform for devices utilized in aircraft and spacecraft.
The Topic 3 project will help facilitate collaboration and integrate this technology into the device manufacturing ecosystem. A key objective is to create and validate a scalable test platform for devices tailored for space applications. The success of this project will enable commercialization of Galileo’s technology with power electronics and space power component manufacturers.
Funded by the Office of Technology Commercialization.
Team 185: O2SAFA graduate of EIC Cohort 15 in 2022, the O2SAF team aims to improve the overall carbon efficiency of synthetic aviation fuel (SAF) production by upgrading low-value C1–C7 hydrocarbons into SAF-range aromatics, oligomers, and hydrogen. Building on the team’s prior catalyst development work and immersion program experience, Topic 3 will help O2SAF refine and evaluate a powder catalyst system.
The Topic 3 project will also be key to O2SAF demonstrating their technology using real feedstocks to strengthen the technical basis of the catalytic approach and facilitate the next phase of development. The outcomes of this focused effort will significantly alleviate technical barriers, strengthen industrial collaboration, and accelerate the transition of this catalytic technology toward commercial-scale SAF production.
Funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office.
Team 189: CUBESThe Carbon Upcycled Bioproducts for Environmental Sustainability (CUBES) team developed a waste-to-bioproducts platform conceived by Sandia National Laboratories. This technology aims to strengthen the supply chain of diesel-like fuels in the heavy-duty transportation sector by developing liquid fuels from waste biomass. The CUBES team graduated in 2023 from EIC’s Cohort 16, where they highlighted the growing need for waste-to-bioproducts fuel candidates and the criticality of securing a high-volume, high-purity, low-cost feedstock fit for fuel production.
This Topic 3 project will help address uncertainties in the path to commercialization of CUBES’ fuels, particularly in sourcing productive feedstock material and in applicable fuel specifications. Further engagement with industry stakeholders will help identify key demonstrations to unlock potential partnerships and strategically position CUBES for follow-on funding opportunities, including large-scale locomotive engine testing and pre-pilot process validation.
Funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office.
Team 230: OptimalEnergyOptimalEnergy is an advanced AI-driven Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) developed to tackle key challenges in renewable energy integration, grid resilience, and energy affordability. By leveraging real-time analytics and optimization, the technology facilitates seamless coordination of solar, battery storage, and demand-side resources. Customer discovery interviews during the Energy I-Corps program identified Puerto Rico’s cooperatives, municipalities, and industrial entities, as early adopters for OptimalEnergy solutions.
This Topic 3 project seeks funding to take action on the learnings of Energy I-Corps and conduct a pilot deployment of OptimalEnergy in Puerto Rico. The project aims to validate the technology's performance in real-world conditions, address barriers to adoption, and support the commercialization of DERMS technologies for underserved and disaster-prone regions.
For Topic 3, the OptimalEnergy team will be funded by the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response.
Funded by the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response.