Administration of a National Clean Energy Business Creation Competition for University Students

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeks applications that propose to administer annual U.S. regional business creation competitions for university-based student entrepreneurs with business ideas and models that fall within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) mission and technology portfolio, as defined: ?The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy works to strengthen the United States? energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality in public-private partnerships. It supports this goal through (1) enhancing energy efficiency and productivity; and (2) bringing clean, reliable and affordable energy technologies to the marketplace.? (http://www.eere.energy.gov) DOE anticipates that it will provide 3 years of funding for up to 6 individual regional competitions (one per region) that will be administered on an annual basis. Thus, each award under this program is expected to have a nominal duration of 36 months. Awards will include a go/no-go evaluation conducted after one year based on a set of objective measures of the performance and effectiveness of each awardee?s program. In each of the 3 years of funding, the winners from the funded regional business creation competitions will advance to a National Grand Prize competition, to be administered directly by DOE. DOE expects applicants to include a significant amount of University Student involvement in the creation, administration and judging of the competition. Non-university applicants will be expected to outline a plan for inclusion of University Students and how they would integrate them into their competition. Authority for this Funding Opportunity Announcement derives from 42 U.S.C. section 16396(a): ?The Secretary may carry out a program to award cash prizes in recognition of breakthrough achievements in research, development, demonstration, and commercial application that have the potential for application to performance of the mission of the Department.? REGIONS OF INTEREST Applicants will be asked to define the regional scope of their competition. The DOE has delineated 6 general geographic regions of the United States that it hopes to support through a single strong competition in each region. Note, however, that the regions defined here are intended to serve only as a general suggested guideline. DOE recognizes that applicants may have reasons to deviate from the breakout below, and as such, applicants are encouraged to define their regional scope based on what is expected to lead to the most successful and high-impact competition. All applicants will be asked to justify the selection and definition of their target region, regardless of whether they choose to adhere to the suggested regional guidelines below or if their region deviates from the suggested regions. Note that DOE intends to support up to 6 cohesive and independent geographical regions. Thus, it is unlikely for DOE to support two competitions that significantly overlap in geographic target and reach. DOE intends to work with all awardees to optimize geographic distribution of regional competitions once selections for award have been made.