Commercialization

EPA has developed a guide (called the "Environmental Technology Research & Development Continuum") to the EPA programs that address environmental technology, and the type of support these programs provide along the path from development to commercialization.

EPA opportunities have been mapped onto the Continuum to help encourage academic, public, and private sector developers to invest time and money in the creation of new, cost-effective environmental technologies.

Although EPA does not provide commercialization assistance for full scale technologies, other federal and non-governmental entities do.

Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) offer researchers in-kind support rather than direct financial support.

The benefits of CRADAs include:

• Access to EPA laboratory facilities - private sector entities can conduct research in EPA's scientific facilitates such as hazardous waste test and evaluation facilities, and indoor air chambers.
• Collaboration with EPA scientists and engineers - EPA research laboratories employ outstanding scientists and engineers, studying a wide range of environmental issues and potentially beneficial technologies.

Opportunities for licensing patented technologies - Under some CRADAs, companies are given an exclusive right to market and commercialize new technologies that result from their collaboration with EPA.

For more information on How to Apply contact:
Laurel Shultz at 202-564-3917 or schultz.laurel@epa.gov

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OTAQ seeks to support demonstration projects, ranging up to $200,000 yearly per award depending upon the project proposal. These cooperative agreements will go to national institutions, or non profit organizations to further develop internal combustion engine technology.

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Under authority of Section 104(b)(3) of the Clean Water Act, EPA makes grants to state water pollution control agencies, interstate agencies, and other non profit institutions, organizations, and individuals to promote the coordination of environmentally beneficial activities. These activities include storm water control, sludge management, and pretreatment.

Among the efforts that are eligible for funding under the Section 104(b)(3) program are research, investigations, experiments, training, environmental technology demonstrations, surveys, and studies related to the causes, effects, extent, and prevention of pollution.

104(b) (3) Water Quality Grants:
http://www.epa.gov/owm/cwfinance/waterquality.htm

To Apply:
http://www.epa.gov/water/funding.html

For more Information:
http://www.epa.gov/OW-OWM.html/mab/indian/104coord.htm

| Funding Opportunities | More Info on Water Grants |

FRTR was established in 1990 to bring together top federal cleanup program managers and other remediation community representatives to:

• Share information and learn about technology-related efforts of mutual interest,
• Discuss future directions of the national site remediation programs and their impact on the technology market,
• Interact with similar state and private industry technology development programs, and
• Form partnerships to pursue subjects of mutual interest.

FRTR members-agencies include:

• U.S. Department of Defense
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Department of Energy
• U.S. Department of the Interior
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Since its inception, collaborative efforts among the FRTR member-agencies have led to technology development and demonstration partnerships with private developers, a more consistent and unified federal approach to technology evaluation and regulatory acceptance, and a variety of technology transfer tools and other information resources.

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The RTDF has grown to include partners from industry, several government agencies, and academia who share the common goal of developing more effective, less costly hazardous waste characterization and treatment technologies.

The RTDF is one of a few government programs designed to foster public-private partnerships to conduct laboratory and applied field research to develop, test, and evaluate innovative remediation technologies. Through the unprecedented collaboration of the RTDF, companies, government agencies, and universities voluntarily are sharing knowledge, experience, equipment, facilities, and even proprietary technology to address mutual remediation problems. Individual RTDF Action Teams also interact and communicate with other consortia including the Consortium for Site Characterization Technology and the Advanced Applied Technology Demonstration Facility.

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• ATP Fosters National Benefit: ATP spurs its partners to invest in research and development that have payoffs far beyond private profit, bringing to Americans higher paying jobs, better consumer products, improved health, greater energy efficiency, and a cleaner environment;
• ATP Funds High-Risk Research: ATP accelerates the development of new-to-the-world technologies by sharing the cost and the risk with companies when research risks are too high for the private sector to bear alone.
• ATP Conducts Rigorous Peer Review: ATP's merit-based, rigorous selection process ensures high quality, objectiveness, and fairness.
• ATP Builds Partnerships: ATP catalyzes companies, universities, research organizations, and state and local entities to partner creatively to develop innovative technologies;
• ATP Encourages Diffusion of Knowledge: ATP encourages companies to publish and share their results and to pursue patents and licensing to give others a chance to benefit from new knowledge created in ATP projects.

ATP works with industry and universities to identify and promote investment in technologies with significant potential for broad-based economic benefits, but inadequate levels of private investment. The Program uses joint ventures and teaming arrangements to combine private investment and the best available scientific and technological talent in industry, universities, and government.

SBA's Office of Technology strengthens and expands the competitiveness of U. S. small, high technology research and development businesses in the federal marketplace. They also assist in achieving the commercialization of the results of both the federal research and development programs mandated by the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982, the Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992, and the Small Business Innovation Research Program Reauthorization Act of 2000.

SBA carries out their mission through the following programs and initiatives:

• Small Business Innovation Research Program
• Small Business Technology Transfer Program

The Office of Technology promotes high technology programs to improve the competitive capability of small research and development businesses with particular emphasis on emerging and under-served firms. It encourages state-of-the-market technology training, technology information exchange, and outreach on federal technology programs. It also encourages private and public resource support for the commercialization of federal R & D efforts. It promotes outreach activities to introduce women- and minority-owned small businesses to the advantages of competing for federal R & D projects. The office also hosts the annual Tibbetts Awards that recognizes SBIR recipients who have excelled in the research and development arena. These companies or individuals are nominated by their peers, federal officials, or Congressional members to receive this prestigious award.

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The Industrial Technologies Program works in partnership with U.S. industry to develop and deliver advanced technologies that:

• Increase energy efficiency
• Improve environmental performance
• Boost productivity

The Industrial Technologies Program employs “Industry of the Future” partnerships to increase the efficiency of industrial energy use, both now and in the future. Emphasis is on technologies and practices that can boost the productivity and profits of our most energy-intensive industries—industries that supply more than 90 percent of the materials in the finished products that we use every day. The Program partners with industry through a competitive solicitation process, providing financial assistance to selected research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects that can dramatically accelerate the pace of technology innovation. These partnerships bring the expertise of private companies, national laboratories, and universities to bear on solving critical technological challenges. Partners typically provide 50 percent of total project costs over the life of a project.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsors an innovative, cost-sharing program to promote energy efficiency, clean production, and economic competitiveness in industry.

The grant program, National Industrial Competitiveness through Energy, Environment, and Economics (NICE³), provides funding to state and industry partnerships (large and small business) for projects that develop and demonstrate advances in energy efficiency and clean production technologies.

Industry applicants must submit project proposals through a state energy, pollution prevention, or business development office. State and Industry partnerships are eligible to receive a one-time grant of up to $525,000. The industrial partner may receive a maximum of $500,000 in federal funding. Non-federal cost share must be at least 50% of the total cost of the project.

In total, NICE³ has sponsored over 100 projects, with more than half going to small businesses. NICE³ has leveraged $26.3 million in federal funds, with $81.8 million in state and industry funds since 1991.

DOE's Office of Industrial Technologies

Offers solicitations under Industries of the Future: http://www.eere.energy.gov/industry/

DOE's e-Center lists most of DOE's solicitations at: http://e-center.doe.gov/

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The goals of the agency are as follows:

• foster fundamental creative discoveries, innovative research strategies, and their applications as a basis to advance significantly the Nation's capacity to protect and improve health;
• develop, maintain, and renew scientific human and physical resources that will assure the Nation's capability to prevent disease;
• expand the knowledge base in medical and associated sciences in order to enhance the Nation's economic well-being and ensure a continued high return on the public investment in research; and
• exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science.

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NOAA conducts atmospheric, climate, oceanic and fisheries research on an in-house and extramural basis. NOAA research grants are available through several NOAA marine research centers located on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts as well on on the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA also operates an environmental technology laboratory in Boulder, Colorado that leverages NOAA's expertise in remote geophysical sensing of the environment.

| NOAA Research Homepage | NOAA Research Grants Page |

CICEET is a joint venture begun in 1997 between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of New Hampshire and located on the UNH campus in Durham, NH. CICEET's research focuses on high priority issues affecting coastal areas and estuaries, takes and interdisciplinary approach involving academia, government and the private sector, and seeks to accelerate and deepen the use of new technological approaches to coastal management issues.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the U.S. Government. NSF initiates and supports through grants and contracts, scientific and engineering research and programs to strengthen scientific and engineering research potential, and education programs at all levels, and appraise the impact of research upon industrial development and the general welfare.

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NETL's primary mission is to assure that U.S. fossil energy resources can meet the increasing demand for affordable energy without compromising the quality of life for future generations of Americans. Within this context, they have historically focused on the development of advanced technologies related to coal and natural gas. With the recent addition of the National Petroleum Technology Office to their laboratory, responsibilities now cover the breadth of fossil energy resources - coal, natural gas, and oil.

In recent years NETL broadened its mission to include support to the development and deployment of environmental technologies that lower the cost and reduce the risk of cleaning up the Department of Energy’s weapons complex.

Export.gov's Export Basics web site describes the seven steps to market your product internationally.

Basic Guide to Exporting:

A Basic Guide to Exporting, which discusses various approaches to exporting, is an official publication of the U.S. Department of Commerce
http://www.unzco.com/basicguide/index.html

Clean Tech allows all companies who are commercializing clean technologies to become Member Companies and advertise to their Member Investors initially for no cost.

For companies that feel they are ready to attract venture capital, Clean Tech provides the Cleantech Venture Forum where selected applicants are given the opportunity to present to and network with a large audience of interested and qualified investors. For companies at earlier stages of development, they provide training and consulting services at modest cost.

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Founded in 1992, Investors’ Circle (IC) has become one of the nation’s oldest and largest investor networks, and the only one devoted specifically to sustainability. Its members and active affiliates are high net-worth individuals, professional venture capitalists, family offices and foundations. In its first decade, network members invested over $90 million into 147 early stage private companies and venture funds working to deliver commercial solutions to social and environmental problems.

IC is a national network of early-stage private equity investors who seek financial, social and environmental returns on their investments. Businesses that are reviewed by Investors' Circle members must fall into one or more of four specific interest areas: community development, education and media, environment and energy, health. They also strongly encourage minority and woman-led businesses to apply as long as the underlying business does not detract from the sustainability and social responsibility values of Investors' Circle. For more info on how to apply:

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