DOE awards $1M grant to CSU for energy research
FORT COLLINS — The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $1 million to Colorado State University’s Energy Institute to support energy innovation and commercialization. The award is part of the DOE’s Energy Program for Innovation Clusters.
The funding is part of $9.5 million in grants that DOE awarded to 10 incubators and accelerators around the country.
Funds awarded to CSU will help create the Rockies/Plains Energy Accelerator for Commercializing Hardtech (REACH), in collaboration with Innosphere Ventures, the Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory, and 22 other partners, according to a CSU press release.
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“Colorado’s innovation ecosystem is well-poised for acceleration to meet the need for clean, low-carbon technologies in order to meet the nation’s ambitious climate goals,” Bryan Willson, executive director of the CSU Energy Institute, said in a statement. “The REACH accelerator will allow us to work with early-stage companies to help transition their technologies into viable businesses that can help meet these goals.”
Innosphere and CSU — working with public, private, nonprofit and higher-education partners — will develop a growth strategy for regional energy innovation clusters. The effort will be supported by the Collaboratory — a partnership among CSU, the University of Colorado Boulder, the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“Taking the energy hardtech innovation model developed by CSU and Innosphere over the past decade to support early-stage founders is very significant from a regional collaboration standpoint,” Mike Freeman, CEO of Innosphere Ventures, said in a statement. “We’re excited to work with leading research universities in the U.S. mountain plains region to support their mission of advancing economic development and innovation.”
Other recipients of EPIC funds include:
- Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, $1 million.
- New Energy Nexus, New York, $992,970.
- Clean Energy Trust, Chicago, $909,411.
- Regents at New Mexico State University, $1 million.
- Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, $750,000.
- United States Research Impact Alliance, Morgantown, West Virginia, $1 million.
- Launch Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, $882,999.
- E4 Carolinas Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina, $999,704.
- VertueLab, Portland, Oregon, $999,613.