The Department of Energy (DOE) is carving out a new path for small businesses to join its Genesis Mission, launching a $10 million funding opportunity while overhauling a historically burdensome application process.
DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) announced the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I opportunity on July 22, with an anticipated 40 awards aimed specifically at four Genesis Mission-focused areas.
Those areas include scaling the biotechnology revolution, leveraging AI for quantum computing and networking, designing materials with predictable functionality, and achieving AI-driven autonomous laboratories.
In a recent interview with MeriTalk, Anthony Pugliese, DOE’s chief commercialization officer and director of OTC, said that DOE saw significant demand to participate in the Genesis Mission and wanted to create a funding avenue geared toward smaller innovators. DOE received about 5,000 applications for the first Genesis Mission solicitation, but it awarded just 278 projects.
“We thought, wouldn’t it be great to try to identify or create a new opportunity that was really specifically focused on small businesses?” Pugliese said. “We were certainly cognizant that historically, when you talk about innovation, especially in the technology sector, startups and small businesses play an enormously important role.”
The Genesis-focused solicitation comes as DOE is undertaking a broader redesign of its SBIR/STTR programs, which the department consolidated under OTC earlier this year to streamline commercialization efforts and improve the experience for entrepreneurs.
One of the most significant changes, Pugliese said, is a steep reduction in the application paperwork.
“If an application process is 200-plus pages, very few small businesses and even less startups are going to have the know-how to be able to properly apply for that funding,” Pugliese said. “So, we are reducing the application process dramatically.”
Pugliese said DOE plans to shrink the 200-plus page submissions to closer to 40 pages to focus on only the most critical information from applicants.
The redesigned program will also place more emphasis on project management and continued support after an award is made.
Pugliese said DOE is also looking to remove additional SBIR/STTR application hurdles to prevent promising startups from getting caught in lengthy funding gaps.
“We are looking to eliminate the Phase II application entirely by replacing it with a go or no-go decision point,” he said, noting that companies have historically waited six to nine months or more between completing Phase I work and getting the opportunity to apply for Phase II funding.
That lag can be particularly damaging for young companies operating with limited capital, he explained.
By allowing successful Phase I awardees to move directly into Phase II without filing another application, Pugliese said DOE could save companies roughly $45,000.
“We’re trying to reduce costs, we’re trying to streamline the process, and trying to ensure that these awardees have the best opportunity for success,” Pugliese said. “And we really want to make sure that we’re being a good partner with them.”
The Genesis solicitation will not be DOE’s last Phase I opportunity this year. The department said a broader Phase I funding opportunity is expected later this fall, expanding beyond the four Genesis-focused areas.
Pugliese told MeriTalk that funding opportunities will include “many technical topics across the DOE’s mission, so things like AI, quantum, energy security, modernizing the grid, next-generation nuclear energy, critical minerals,” and more.
DOE’s broader goal is to bring new innovators into the department’s ecosystem, including companies that may not have considered working with the DOE before, and improve their chances of translating research into commercial technologies, Pugliese said.
The department plans to measure early success through application levels and the number of first-time applicants and awardees. Longer term, DOE will look at whether participating companies survive, grow, attract private investment, and bring technologies to market.
“We are eager to support small businesses,” Pugliese said. “We are eager to support the commercialization efforts, and I think what you’re seeing right now, there’s never been more support from President Trump, from Secretary Wright, and the administration than what we’re seeing right now.”