Resource Pages

U-LAUNCH – GRANTS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

In collaboration with Cleantech Open, U-Launch provides financial and technical assistance to help university clean energy technology entrepreneurs and emerging companies transition from the laboratory to the market. U-Launch awards grants in combinations of funded and in-kind services ranging from R&D assistance and incubation to mentorship. U-Launch is partially funded by a three-year award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Innovation Ecosystem Development Initiative and operated by Fraunhofer USA and three partner organizations including the New England Clean Energy Council, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and ACTION (for more information, please visit http://cse.fraunhofer.org/u-launch/).

ACCELERATING SUCCESS – EDUCATIONAL CONTENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS

To strengthen ACTION’s mission of supporting entrepreneurs and emerging companies, ACTION has partnered with the Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship & Commercialization (ITEC) at Boston University, to create and deliver an educational content program relevant to start-ups hosted in our ACTIONetwork incubators, and to select stakeholders as determined by the ACTIONetwork Member sites. By joining an incubator in the ACTIONetwork, emerging companies and entrepreneurs have access to an ongoing and evolving program of invaluable information on topics critical to cleantech company formation and growth including: creating an effective elevator pitch, intellectual property management, high-impact marketing and sales, common mistakes to avoid, financing options, and many others. This interactive program encourages participation and provides coaching from senior, experienced executives and subject matter experts.

IGREEN NEW ENGLAND PARTNERSHIP – ACCELERATING CLEAN ENERGY STARTUP ACTIVITY

The iGreen NE Partnership, led by the New England Clean Energy Foundation (NECEF), is a multi-state network of university researchers, innovators, public sector leaders, corporations, venture capitalists, and other cleantech stakeholders who are collaborating to provide promising cleantech lab and pre-venture projects with funding, business assistance, technical resources, and testing infrastructure. The partnership will, over the two-year grant period, support 20-30 early-stage projects across New England, with the involvement of each state and inclusion of economically distressed areas. It will create or keep over 100 jobs and leverage more than $65 million in private cleantech investment. ACTION has partnered with NECEF as a key player to drive participation in the Innovation Connector, an online infrastructure and human network that will facilitate acceleration of cleantech innovations by connecting pre-venture project leaders, commercialization program managers, and other stakeholders through knowledge sharing and at real-time and virtual events across New England.