A new pilot initiative from the Department of Energy (DOE) will help entrepreneurs access its national labs to more quickly commercialize their technologies.
The Agreements for Commercializing Technology (ACT) initiative will help businesses bring job-creating technologies to the market more quickly by allowing them to work with DOE’s labs from start to finish developing and delivering new clean energy technologies and other innovations.
Businesses will be able to use research and other facilities as well as work with scientists at the labs.
"To compete in the 21st global economy, we need to make it easier for businesses to move great ideas from the drawing board to the marketplace," says DOE Deputy Secretary Poneman. "ACT will cut red tape for businesses and start-ups interested in working with our nation’s crown jewels of innovation, the national labs, and strengthen new domestic industries by helping bring innovative, job-creating technologies to the market faster."
In October, the President issued a memorandum directing agencies with federal labs to accelerate technology transfer and commercialization of research, and to take steps to increase partnerships between businesses and labs.
In March, DOE launched "America’s Next Top Energy Innovator’" Challenge, which gives start-up companies access to its thousands of unlicensed patents at a greatly reduced cost and paperwork.
And last week, DOE announced the Rooftop Solar Challenge, which allocates $12 million to support 22 regional teams that will compete to find ways to cut the red tape involved in solar installations. They’ll be looking for ways to streamline and standardize permitting, zoning, metering, connection processes and finance options.
These "soft costs" (as opposed to hard costs, which have to do with solar hardware) can represent up to 40% of the total cost of a solar system. The goal is to reduce barriers and lower costs for residential and small commercial rooftop solar systems.
Learn more about ACT:
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