As an effort to significantly increase the industrial impact of the Energy Department's national laboratories on the U.S. clean energy sector ...
Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
March 25, 2015
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Researcher Kenny Gruchalla (right) explains the 3D Visualization technology to DOE Deputy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall in the Energy Systems Integration facility (ESIF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.
Transitioning technology advancements from the laboratory to the marketplace is one of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) keys to developing a clean energy economy. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE's) National Laboratory Impact Initiative (Lab Impact Initiative) is working to achieve this goal by significantly increasing the industrial impact of DOE’s national laboratories on the U.S. clean energy sector.
In order to successfully and effectively research and commercialize technologies, DOE’s world-class national laboratories partner with companies around the country that are committed to expanding clean energy in the United States. Large companies often have the capabilities and resources to engage and collaborate with DOE’s national labs, but small businesses—whose success and sustainability are one of the key ingredients to a strong economy—face challenges in many of these areas. The Lab Impact Initiative’s Small Business Vouchers (SBV) pilot aims to overcome these challenges by providing an explicit forum to support engagement and agreements between DOE’s national labs and U.S. small businesses.
The SBV pilot is intended to further DOE’s clean energy and economic development missions by increasing small business access to the expertise, competencies, and infrastructure offered by DOE’s national labs. The SBV pilot will be national in scope, connect private sector needs with corresponding laboratory science and technology capabilities, and target small businesses where engagement with the labs can add significant value.
EERE will provide $20 million in funding for three to five national labs selected to participate in the SBV pilot in Fiscal Year 2015. Funds for the SBV pilot will be provided directly to the labs to work with small businesses in areas that are consistent with EERE’s mission. No funds will be transferred to the small businesses participating in the pilot.
The Lab Impact Initiative recently released the SBV Lab Call to invite DOE's national labs to participate in the pilot. Later this spring, EERE will select three to five labs to participate in the pilot. By this summer, a competitive process will be open to small businesses from across the country seeking to work with the national labs on their most pressing cutting-edge research and commercialization challenges to bring the next generation of EERE technologies to market.
For more information about the SBV pilot and the Lab Impact Initiative, please contact the Lab Impact Initiative team.
Josh Mengers
Josh Mengers
Josh Mengers is a project manager and Army veteran with a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He has been with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for nine years, where he managed renewable energy Research & Development projects at DOE Headquarters for seven years before coming to ETEC in 2019. Hired as a President Management Fellow by the Department in 2012, he was a project manager in Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office and also spent a six-month detail with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency where he worked on an airbreathing hypersonic project. While at headquarters, he also served as the chairman of the DOE’s EnergyVets employee resource group from 2017-2019.
He was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army in 2001. He served as a platoon leader and staff officer for a combat engineer battalion in Bamberg, Germany, where he deployed to Kosovo and Iraq. He left the service as a captain in 2005 to pursue graduate degrees at the University of Notre Dame. There he earned an Master of Science and doctorate in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, focused on thermodynamic modeling; he also holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.