Funding Opportunities

Competitive funding opportunities not only bring financial rewards, but also prestige and opportunities for professional growth. View currently available opportunities for students, faculty and research teams.

A virtual information session regarding the Energy Seed Grant program will be held on October 10, 2023 at 1pm EDT regarding the proposal process. Dr. Ellen Williams, Chair of our Investment Committee will be available to answer your questions. Please contact Cathy Stephens (csteph5@umd.edu) for more information.

The power point presentation from the information meeting can be found here.

FY2024 Energy Seed Grant for Innovation application deadline is Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

Click here for the FY24 Application.

 

Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize

  • This prize, which is part of DOE’s American-Made Challenges program, seeks to develop robust domestic recycling options for fiber-reinforced composites and rare earth elements, which can lessen the United States’ need to extract and process raw materials to meet this need. This benefits the environment, makes supply chains more resilient to price volatility and disruption, and reduces dependence on foreign sources of these materials. This is the first of two phases in the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize. In the first phase, Initiate!, DOE invites participants to present innovative technologies that have previously not been applied to recycling of wind energy system materials, as well as technologies that could substantially improve existing wind material recycling processes. During the second phase, Accelerate!competitors will demonstrate prototypes of their technologies.
  • The competition is open to private (for-profit and nonprofit) organizations, nonfederal government (such as state, county, tribal, and municipal) entities, academic institutions, and individuals that meet all eligibility requirements listed in the official rules.
  • Applications for Phase 1 are due on September 29, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET. DOE anticipates awarding $75,000 cash prizes to up to 20 applicants in Phase 1.
  • Learn more about the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize and register for the informational webinar on August. 3, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. ET

 

Climate Catalytic (C3) Fund - From the State Legislature in 2023 Econ. Dev. § 10-855: 

The purpose of the Fund is to promote geographical impact remedies and to leverage increased private capital investment in technology development and deployment, including project planning, to:

(1) reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enable the adoption of measures to combat climate impacts;
(2) facilitate the electrification of the transportation sector and the use of sustainable alternative fuels in aviation;
(3) enable improvements in energy management and efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector;
(4) expand the deployment of clean energy generation and energy storage capacity;
(5) target the implementation of energy and weatherization measures for low- to moderate-income households;
(6) optimize the economic, health, social, and environmental value of community-scale infrastructure for resilience and energy equity;
(7) allow for the deployment of advanced clean energy technology; and
(8) provide for the creation of a Maryland Green Bond program.

 

DHS Prize Competition, Clean Power for Hours

  • Full rules and details can be found on Challenge.gov
  • The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for innovative back-up power solutions that will help critical facilities continue to operate during electrical outages. Winning solutions will be affordable, easy-to-use, and environmentally friendly power sources that can provide on-site power generation for critical facilities that provide essential services to communities across the United States. This Challenge is seeking to identify and catalyze existing cutting-edge technologies with a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of 6 or higher that can be used to continue essential facility operations in an event of a power failure or disruption lasting more than 36-hours. TRL refers to the method for determining the maturity of technology.  
  • This is particularly important to National Critical Functions (NCFs) that support essential community lifelines services (such as basic needs like emergency services, urgent healthcare, and food/water).

 

Since 2008, Ms. Barbara Hulka has provided the Hulka Energy Research Fellowship to support graduate student research in selected alternative energy fields at the University of Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEI2). This announcement serves as a request for proposals for engineering graduate student(s) and their faculty advisor(s) to seek funding to pursue new research in one of the following research areas:

  • advanced solar energy conversion,
  • fuels and power from sustainable biological processes,
  • renewable wind energy,
  • ocean thermal or wave energy or geothermal energy conversion

The University of Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEI2) is privileged to offer the Harry K. Wells Fellowship.  Mr. Harry K. Wells established an endowment to support engineering graduate student research in energy at the University of Maryland (UMD). This announcement serves as a request for proposals for engineering graduate student(s) and their faculty advisor(s) to seek funding to pursue new research in the field of sustainable energy generation and/or storage.

 


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