On January 7, the U.S. Department of Energy announced plans to award 189 grants totaling $33 million to 149 small businesses in 32 states. Funded through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, today’s selections are for Phase I research and development.
Small businesses play a major role in spurring innovation and creating jobs in the U.S. economy. The SBIR and STTR programs were created by Congress to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies.
The Phase I grants will allow small businesses to research technical feasibility of new innovations that advance the mission of the Office of Science. Phase I grants are 6-12 months in duration with a median award amount of $150,000. Successful Phase I grantees will be eligible to apply for Phase II awards in fiscal year 2020 that will allow them to develop novel prototypes or processes to validate their Phase I research findings. Phase II grants have a median award amount of $1,100,000 and a duration up to 2 years.
Projects include:
Office of Advanced Scientific Computing
- Large-scale Computing Distributed Intrusion Detection System
- Configurable Entangled Photon Source for Quantum Networks
- Building Commercialization-ready Low-cost Deployable Room-temperature Quantum Memories
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
- Novel Polymer-Electrolyte Membrane Development for Carbon Dioxide Conversion to Solar Fuel
- High Performance Diamond Based Transparent X-Ray Beam Imaging System
- A Low Cost Ion Selective Membrane for Redox Flow Batteries
Office of Biological and Environmental Research
- A Robust, Ground-Based Microwave Radiometer for Atmospheric Water vapor and Liquid Water Measurement
- Geochemical Monitoring System and Network for Complex Subsurface Matrices
- Non-destructive, Functional Metabolic Imaging of Plant and Microbial Systems
Office of Nuclear Physics
- Additively Manufactured Z-Channel Detectors for Heavy Ion Accelerator Diagnostics
- Superconducting MgB2 Tubes for Passive Magnetic Field Shielding for Electron Ion Collider
- Superconducting Bolometer for Neutrino Research
