What is the NREL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center?
The NREL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) brings economically viable cleantech innovations to market. We serve our private and public funding partners by leveraging the capabilities at NREL and other labs and activating and connecting our network of cleantech startups, investors, foundations, and industry partners.
We build lasting relationships with key, relevant, and emerging entrepreneurs, investors, and industry partners, including foundations, in the cleantech ecosystem.
We create technology incubation programs and solutions that address the gaps preventing innovations from getting to market and preventing market growth.
We design opportunities to connect entrepreneurs, investors, and industry partners, including foundations, with relevant technologies and innovation markets.
Motivated by our complementary missions, we partner with foundations, governments, and private industry to deploy innovative solutions.
Metrics
$7.3B
earned by startups after participating in IEC programs and events
660
startups have participated in IEC programs and events
393
new hires in GCxN and IN2 cohort companies
What Our Partners Say
"Shell is dedicated to a low-carbon future, having recently set an ambition to be a net-zero-energy business by 2050. Building partnerships with like-minded organizations such as NREL is key to achieving this."
—Haibin Xu, Shell program manager, GCxN
"As one can see from the data, IN2 has successfully accelerated a host of technologies in the market by combining NREL's world-class technical expertise and Wells Fargo's footprint. It's a terrific program filling a much-needed gap in the market."
—A.J. Dye, partner, Iron Gate Capital
"Farmers have never shied away from innovation and are constantly looking for ways to improve their productivity and impact. I’m excited to be part of a program that can help identify and scale solutions that are not only beneficial to farmers, but help farmers, companies, and societies achieve our shared sustainability goals."
—Jill Kolling, vice president for Global Sustainability, Cargill