Make an Impact on Climate … Become a TCF Partner

We are actively seeking partners to join efforts in bringing national lab-developed technologies to market even faster with the 2022 Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF). TCF is a nearly $30 million competitive funding opportunity designed to accelerate the commercialization of promising energy technologies with the ability to impact today’s most pressing climate challenges. Since 2016, TCF has awarded $145 million for 380 projects with 300 private sector partners, paving the way for energy breakthroughs developed in our national labs to reach the market. This year’s TCF reflects new flexibilities to go beyond technology-specific projects and instead seeks far-reaching, technology-agnostic programs and activities to streamline the path to market by addressing barriers, gaps, and root causes of commercialization challenges. 

One of TCF’s ongoing goals is to foster strong partnerships between the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories and entities that bring energy technologies to the marketplace. Partners can be any nonfederal entity, including private companies, state or local governments (or entities created by a state or local government), colleges, universities, tribal entities, or nonprofit organizations. As a partner, you can bring your deep knowledge and experience addressing the activities described in this year’s five topics: 

• Market Needs Assessment: To integrate market pull into new research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) program strategy and accelerate commercialization via market-informed DOE and lab policies and programs.
• Curation of Intellectual Property (IP): To improve how labs ready the IP needed to connect promising technologies with private sector partners.
• Matchmaking: To build partner teams to commercialize promising, curated energy technology IP and lead new technologies to market.
• Streamlining Laboratory Processes and/or Requirements: To provide a more united, consistent, approach to engaging external partners lab-wide.
• Increasing Partnerships with External Commercialization Parties: To improve how labs attract, recruit, and retain external partners to further develop and commercialize technologies.

Our planet has an urgent need that lab-developed technologies can address, but we need your help to accelerate their path to market. We’ve made it easy to get connected with a national lab directly. Here’s how:

• Reach out to lab representatives using the contact list in Lab Call Appendix C (pg. 47). 
• Email [email protected] to join the Teaming Partner List so labs can contact you.