As part of the US Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunity (FOA) announcement from the Energy Department’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Office for approximately $37 million (DE-FOA-0001941), the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) expects to fund more than 100 new projects, totaling approximately $20 million.

Nine EERE technology offices will fund and manage proposals under these topics—one for each technology office (Advanced Manufacturing, Bioenergy, Buildings, Fuel Cells, Geothermal, Solar, Vehicles, Water, and Wind) with three joint office topics (Advanced Manufacturing with Fuel Cells, Advanced Manufacturing with Geothermal, and Advanced Manufacturing with Solar).

The 41 subtopics range from Algae Engineering to Wind Turbine Blade Recycling, and there are three Office of Technology Transfer Opportunity (TTO) subtopics.

The SBIR and STTR programs were created by Congress to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies. TTO subtopics were developed by DOE as a way for small businesses to partner with DOE national laboratories on research and development needed to speed commercialization of national laboratory inventions.