DOE awards $97M in grants through its small business programs

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will award 86 grants totaling $97 million through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

The grants will go to 70 small businesses in 28 states

This is the second phase of the grant awards. Small businesses that demonstrated technical feasibility for innovations during their Phase I grants competed for funding for prototype or processes development during Phase II. The median award in this phase is $1.1 million for two years.

In the DOEʻs Office of Advanced Scientific Computing, the awards were for projects related to Configurable Entangled Photon Source for Quantum Networks; Tensor Operation Minimization and Optimization for Extreme-Scale Computational Chemistry and Deep Learning; and Intuitive Data Analysis for Assessing Network Performance at Scale.

The awards for the Office of Basic Energy Sciences are related to Oxygen Selective Metal Organic Framework Adsorbent for High Efficiency Air Separation; Development of Additive Manufacturing for Neutron Scattering Collimators; and High-Aspect-Ratio Diamond Refractive Optics

In the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, the awards are for Development of a Ground-Based Microwave Radiometer with Improved Capabilities for Observation of Atmosphere; Dynamic Gamma-ray Imaging for In Vivo Tracking of Microelement Transport Across Plant-Microbial Systems; and Switched-Field Surface NMR for Enhanced Detection and Resolution of Shallow Groundwater.

Finally, in the Office of Nuclear Physics, the awards are for A RF Beam Sweeper for Purifying In-Flight Produced Rare Isotope Beams; Cold Spray Technology Applications for SRF Cavity Thermal and Mechanical Stabilization; and Highly Transparent Aerogel with Refractive Index < 1.01 for High Energy Particle Detection.

The SBIR and STTR programs were created by Congress to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies.