Cohort 2027 CRI innovator solicitation

Energy Technology Innovation
Classification Code:
A -- Research & Development
NAICS Code:
541 -- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services/541712 – Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology) Background
Chain Reaction Innovations was created at Argonne National Laboratory to address the critical national need to accelerate the applied research, development, and deployment of physical science-based technologies (e.g., materials and manufacturing) capable of transforming the nation’s energy systems. Accelerating these technologies from scientific laboratories to opportunities that can potentially be commercialized requires the simultaneous performance of collaborative research and development of technologies and the entrepreneurial development of the innovators working on these technologies.
Chain Reaction Innovations is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) entrepreneurship program that serves as a platform for supporting and mentoring entrepreneurial researchers whose early-stage innovations are presently too challenging or technically uncertain to pursue in a venture capital-financed startup. Chain Reaction Innovations embeds innovators within a national laboratory for up to two years, working with them as they advance their early-stage scientific discoveries to opportunities that can potentially be commercialized within a discrete period, enabling the translation of high-impact materials and manufacturing technologies through entrepreneurial mentorship and cooperative research and development. Innovators are selected into the program through an annual competition, which is the purpose of this solicitation. The Chain Reaction Innovations program intends to provide selected innovators with scientific/technical mentorship and access to unique R&D assets and scientific expertise at Argonne National Laboratory, a DOE national laboratory, to incubate and translate innovations from proof-of-concept to proof-of-product.
Opportunity
Chain Reaction Innovations will help selected innovators in the physical sciences and energy technologies to mature their early-stage innovations. The DOE will provide funding to Argonne to support selected innovators in developing their technology and funding for an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellowship to the selected innovators for the first year, with the possibility of renewal, subject to a one-year review, for support up to a total of 2