DOE Announces up to $44M in Funding for Critical Clean Energy Technologies

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking applications for the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Core Laboratory Infrastructure for Market Readiness (CLIMR) Lab Call. 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 total funding amount available will be applied once an official FY24 DOE budget is passed.

“The 2024 CLIMR Lab Call is our largest TCF Base funded-program yet, and it aims to expedite the lab-to-market pipeline for impactful clean energy technologies,” said Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan, Chief Commercialization Officer for OTT. “All of our national labs are teeming with innovation, and this funding will boost the lab commercialization ecosystem.”

The FY24 CLIMR Lab Call represents the combined effort of 14 different DOE program offices, including the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), 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 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. This is the primary lab call for TCF Base for FY24.

Register to attend an informational webinar tomorrow, November 15, 2023, from 2–3 pm ET. This informational webinar will go over important details of the lab call and will provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

Topic Areas

Only DOE National Laboratories and DOE plants and sites are eligible for funding from this lab call. All applications must be submitted to DOE from each lab’s respective Office of Research and Technology Application (ORTA) Technology Transfer Offices. Applicants are encouraged to propose projects, in collaboration with nonfederal partners, within six topic areas:

1. Market Needs Assessment
2. Curation of Intellectual Property (IP)
3. Matchmaking
4. Technology Specific Partnerships
5. Enhancing Laboratory Processes
6. Increasing Partnerships with External Commercialization Parties

Interested private partners can reach out to lab TTOs directly or sign up to partner on the public Teaming Partner List. Details on both can be found in the lab call.

Key Dates

• An informational webinar will be held for all potential applicants on November 15, 2–3 p.m. ET.
• Deadline to submit concept papers is January 16, 2024, at 3 p.m. ET.
• 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.
• All application materials must be submitted through EERE Exchange.

Teaming Partner List

This solicitation offers an opportunity for private industry to partner with DOE’s national labs to advance energy-related national lab-developed technology toward commercialization and to reduce the barriers to commercializing lab-developed energy-related technologies and intellectual property. To expedite external partnerships in support of this lab call, DOE will compile a Teaming Partner List to facilitate the formation of new project teams.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should find the Teaming Partner List for this solicitation (DE-LC-000L110) on Exchange and submit their organization name and basic details, contact information, area of expertise, and applicable CLIMR topics and subtopics.

Learn more about this OTT lab call and direct questions to the OTT Media Contact [email protected].