OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Oct. 13, 2016 - Small businesses in the clean-energy sector have another opportunity to request technical assistance from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the DOE Small Business Vouchers Pilot.
"The business voucher program helps small businesses access the world-renowned expertise and instrumentation at ORNL and other DOE labs, bringing innovative clean energy products to market," said Moe Khaleel, Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environmental Sciences at ORNL. "Companies can take advantage of high-tech resources that they may not have realized were available, whether it is collaborating with our researchers or gaining assistance from top engineers or facilities."
Johanna Wolfson, Director of EERE's Technology to Market program announced the launch of Small Business Vouchers' (SBV) third round on October 10 at South By Southwest Eco in Austin, Texas. The pilot is part of EERE's National Laboratory Impact Initiative portfolio.
The SBV Pilot opened its first funding round in fall 2015 and launched its second last spring. Through the first two rounds, 76 small businesses from 25 states have been awarded almost $15 million in vouchers.
For this third round, EERE hopes to increase new small businesses collaborating with the DOE national laboratories. As such, small businesses with little to no experience working with the DOE national labs are strongly encouraged to submit requests for assistance.
Individual vouchers range from $50,000 to $300,000 per small business and can be used to perform collaborative research or access to lab instrumentation or facilities. Companies selected must also provide a 20 percent, in-kind cost share for completing voucher work.
Currently, ORNL has 16 small businesses completing more than $3 million in vouchers to work on projects in advanced manufacturing, building technologies, fuel cells, geothermal energy and vehicle technologies.
Businesses interested in SBV funding must be U.S.-based and U.S.-owned with no more than 500 full time employees worldwide. A total of $12 million is available for vouchers in rounds three and four. Companies have until November 10 to submit assistance requests.
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To learn more about ORNL's expertise and the process to submit a request, please visit http://www.SBV.org.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE's Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov. For ORNL partnerships information, contact http://www.ornl.gov/partnerships.
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