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February 26, 2023 | Tom Ballard

New initiative announced to commercialize climate and energy technologies

Four national labs, including ORNL, will participate in the new Cradle to Commerce program that also involves three entrepreneurial support platforms.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions announced a new initiative on Friday to help commercialize national laboratory climate and energy technologies, particularly for buildings, nuclear, smart grid, and renewables.

Named Cradle to Commerce (C2C), it is described as “an unprecedented public-private incubator built to accelerate climate technology and equitable entrepreneurship. C2C combines the strengths and expertise of four DOE facilities – Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Idaho National Laboratory – with the agility and business knowledge of venture capital firms and entrepreneurial support platforms Decisive Point, The Engine, and OneValley.

  • Decisive Point provides portfolio companies with a full-service government contracting team to support entry into the federal market, to include compliance, opportunity screening, proposal supporting, negotiations, and contract administration.
  • OneValley provides a highly curated and immersive experience through its innovation centers, enterprise services, and OneValley Passport, the world’s most comprehensive online innovation platform.

Through the four national labs and three support organizations, scientific and entrepreneurial resources will be available including:

  • Access to curated intellectual property from the labs and state-of-the-art prototyping and test beds;
  • Matchmaking between diverse and talented researchers, entrepreneurs, and business-savvy experts; and
  • Entrepreneurial resources including training, seed funding, and networking for early commercialization networks to accelerate climate technologies to market.

C2C is now recruiting inventors and entrepreneurs from the public and private sectors to help commercialize the available technologies. Those interested in learning more or wanting to pre-apply can click here to state their interest.

The application deadlines are as follows:

  • February 28 – Pre-application priority deadline (rolling basis after)
  • March 1 – Pre-applicants are screened and invited to fill out a full application on a rolling basis
  • March 15 – Pre-application closes for the 2023 Legion
  • March 20 – Full application closes for the 2023 Legion

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