Financing: Government Grants and Other Funded Programs

NREL does not fund grants. However, the Laboratory often works with subcontractors. In fact, about 50% of the NREL budget focuses on subcontracted efforts. The majority of these subcontracts are put in place using a competitive process, primarily through Request for Proposals with R&D partners that are part of technology programs - including Photovoltaics, Wind, Biomass Power, etc. (See http://www.nrel.gov/st.html for a short list of the major technologies). To become a subcontractor in a technology program, you should respond to the RFPs and get your organization on the solicitation list (see http://www.nrel.gov/contracts/index.html ).

The following are other resources that provide financing information for entrepreneurs at a variety of levels. There are several Web sites dedicated to the subject—these are a few that we found especially helpful.

• ScienceWise.com is a free membership site for science research and engineering professionals. Members have access to ScienceWise's "Small Business Center" and to the FEDIX Opportunity Alert (FOA), a federally funded free e-mail service that delivers research and education funding opportunities in specific areas of interest.
• CBDNet is an official, free on-line listing of all government contracting opportunities published in the Commerce Business Daily, including contact names and closing dates. With full-text and data-searching capabilities.
• The Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) Programs were passed by Congress to increase small-business participation in federal R&D and technology commercialization. Information about SBIR and SBTT opportunities can be found on the sites of participating agencies, including the Small Business Administration, the Department of Energy, and NASA.
• The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) of the Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology aims to stimulate U.S. economic growth by enabling technologies through industry-driven cost-shared partnerships.
• The National Science Foundation (NSF) Web site provides information about NIH grants and awards.
• Contracts, Grants, and Financing from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Includes information about the EPA's procurement procedure, lists of current and closed contracts and Requests for Proposals (RFPs), information about research grants and graduate fellowships, and information for state and local governments and small businesses about financing environmental services and projects.
• The Office of Industrial Technologies' Inventions and Innovations Program is a Department of Energy initiative that provides funding for the development of early-stage energy-saving inventions.
• The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and its affiliated centers is a partnership of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology and a network of affiliated service providers throughout the country. MEP is dedicated to bringing technology and business assistance services to America's small- and medium-sized manufacturers, and provides funding for its regional extension centers that help manufacturers use the latest and most appropriate manufacturing technology. The NREL Library has also compiled a selection of several more non-NREL Web sites useful for finding information about possible grants and funding.
• An excellent source of information on state (tax, loan, grant, and other) incentives is a DOE and North Carolina State University program called the National Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE). Electronic resources available on-line include:
  • A Table of State Financial Incentives showing all incentives by state and type with links to Incentive Summary Pages. The Incentive Summary Pages contain links to the full text of applicable state statutes and forms when available;
  • Searchable On-line Database of State Financial Incentives with state energy contacts and links to the state legislative statute; and
  • Links for downloading the database application, DSIRE on Diskette, or spreadsheets.

Financing: National, State, and Local Small Business Programs