Activate Updates: October 2022

Activate Updates

Oct 18

Written By Leanna Yu

This Month's Features

Reflecting on Climate Week NYC
Activate Fellows are Building a Resilient Future
How the U.S. is Manufacturing a Supply Chain of Innovators
Last Call for Applications for Activate Cohort 2023!
Celebrating our New NSF Partnership

Plus

Activate Fellow wins
Ecosystem news
Job opportunities

Getting it done—together—at Climate Week NYC

Climate Week NYC is billed as the biggest climate event on Earth. This year’s event, focused on the theme “Getting It Done,” brought together experts from around the world—including Activate Fellows, for the first time.

Learn more

Always Being Prepared: How Activate Fellows are Building a Resilient Future

Resilience, as any entrepreneur knows, is a key attribute of a successful founder. But there is a second reason that resilience is part of the Activate lexicon: it is also a key attribute of the products and solutions our fellows are building. As the world prepares for a warming planet and more frequent severe weather events, we’re highlighting some of our fellows’ efforts to build products for more resilient infrastructure.

Read on

How the United States is manufacturing a supply chain of innovators

Aimee Rose, executive managing director at Activate and National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) board member, describes how she built her career on U.S. investment in innovation. Through Activate and as part of the NACIE board, she is working to ensure that the next generation of scientists and engineers can, too.

Read On

Applications for Activate Cohort 2023 close in less than two weeks!

There’s still time to apply. Learn how to submit a strong application via the above video and start your application here. Or join our webinar this Friday, October 21, and hear tips for submitting a successful application.

Activate Fellows receive:

A yearly living stipend of $80,000 to $110,000 + health insurance stipend and travel allowance. Each project also receives $100,000 in research support at a host laboratory and access to at least $100,000 in additional flexible capital.
Access to research facilities in Berkeley, CA; Boston, MA; New York, NY; or other qualified host laboratories anywhere across the U.S. in the Activate Anywhere Community.
Intensive entrepreneurial training, mentorship, and networking.

Want to help us get the word out? Use this outreach toolkit to help amplify the fellowship opportunity with your network so that we can find our next cohort of incredible Activate Fellows.

Want to help choose the next cohort as a technical reviewer? If you are an expert in any of our eight focus industries and could spend approximately five hours reviewing applications in November, we would love to have you join our team of external reviewers. Complete this form to express your interest.

Activate partners with the National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation announced a new $20 million investment in Entrepreneurial Fellowships through a multi-year cooperative agreement with Activate. This funding will help make entrepreneurship more accessible for scientists and engineers across the country, expanding Activate's geographic diversity and increasing the participation of women and other communities who have been traditionally underrepresented in STEM.

Finding a Home at Activate Anywhere in Ithaca
Cohort 2022 Activate Fellows Austin Hickman and Alexa Schmitz have turned their Cornell-based research into ventures that could transform next-generation communications and sustainable energy infrastructure, respectively. The Cornell Chronicle covered their journeys to the Cornell Praxis Center for Venture Development and the Activate Anywhere Community.

How Qunnect is Building Quantum Networking
Qunnect, co-founded by Mael Flament (Cohort 2021), raised $8 million in a Series A funding round led by Airbus Ventures including The New York Ventures Fund, Impact Science Ventures, Motus Ventures, and SandboxAQ to boost manufacturing and develop a research and development platform for quantum networking. The company plans on operating a test bed in New York that will begin operations mid-2023.

Fervo’s CO2-Free Energy Comes to LA
Fervo Energy, co-founded by Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck (Cohort 2018), announced a 15-year 33 MW power purchase agreement to provide 24/7 carbon-free geothermal energy to Clean Power Alliance’s three million Southern California customers across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. The project will provide enough energy to power 13,559 Southern California homes each year.

Activate Fellows are #ScientistsOnAMission.

Track our fellows' progress in real-time on our social media feeds.

IN OUR ECOSYSTEM
Upcoming events, relevant opportunities, and what we're reading.

Upcoming Events

Join the Activate recruitment team for weekly application office hours as well as office hours dedicated to questions about the new carbon management imperative. Register here for these sessions, which will occur throughout October.
Deep Science Ventures announced a new venture-led, diversity-first PhD program, the Venture Science Doctorate (VSD), where graduate researchers will spend 1 year analyzing their chosen sector before up to 2 years of lab work to intentionally converge on high-impact science companies. Learn more and hear from Activate's own program continuum director, Sarah Morrill, at the virtual unveiling event on Thursday, October 20.
On October 25, Garrett Boudinot (Cohort 2022) will be moderating the Coastal Blue Carbon Practices Panel on how Coastal Blue Carbon Practices can achieve scalable, financeable, permanent, and equitable outcomes.
Cheri Ackerman (Cohort 2020) will be speaking at the 4th Skin Microbiome & Cosmeceuticals Congress: USA from October 26-27.

Relevant Opportunities

The FORGE Product Development Grant is $3-25k non-dilutive funding awarded to a clean-tech startup to support the development of a physical product. This offering for Historically Marginalized Leaders is dedicated specifically to boosting the trajectory of these often underserved and underrepresented founders that traditionally launch companies with less capital investment. Apply by October 28.
The DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) released a funding opportunity for the development and testing of renewable marine energy technologies. WPTO estimates making up to 14 awards under the Marine Energy Systems Innovation at Sea funding opportunity, ranging between $300k and $2.1M. Submit a concept paper by November 4 to be eligible to submit a full application.
The DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization FOA will advance decarbonization technologies that will reduce the carbon footprint of the industrial sector. Full applications are due December 20.

Activate Voices

Activate president Matt Price was a guest on the Lab to Startup podcast, sharing the origin story of Activate and a behind-the-scenes look at the application process.
Gabriel Kra, Activate board member and co-founder of the venture capital firm Prelude, spoke on the Bloomberg Green podcast Zero about how venture capital supports emerging climate solutions.
Sam Calisch (Cohort 2020), also known as “Mr. Heat Pump,” donned a heat pump costume and took to Washington, DC to tell strangers on the street about the machines and the benefits of electrification.
Aeroshield, co-founded by Elise Strobach and Kyle Wilke (Cohort 2020), is a finalist in Greentown Labs’ Healthy Buildings Challenge for the company’s super-insulating, transparent inserts for windows, bringing state-of-the-art thermal comfort and energy savings into buildings at an affordable price.
Root Applied Sciences, co-founded by Sarah Placella (Cohort 2022), is a finalist in Radicle’s Inclusion Challenge, which recognizes top AgTech entrepreneurs supporting diversity and inclusion around the world.

Want us to highlight an upcoming event or relevant opportunity in next month's newsletter? Let us know.

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