Last October, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a collective total of $1 million to 20 incubators from across the country, concluding the first part of a groundbreaking program titled “Energy Program for Innovation Clusters” (EPIC) that is administered by the Department’s Office of Technology Transitions. One of the winners was the University of Tennessee’s Spark Innovation Center, and DOE has posted summaries on seven of the 20 including this one on Spark.
Earlier this month, the DOE announced a series of grant recipients under the second phase of the EPIC program. The initiative was created to underscore the importance of regional clusters which increase productivity of area companies, drive the direction and pace of innovation, and stimulate the formation of new businesses. One of the 20 recipients of phase two awards was the “Midwest Regional Innovation Partnership” (MRIP) that is comprised of the Clean Energy Trust, Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University, mHUB, and Spark.
As described in this article, Spark will use its portion of the funding to launch the “Spark Cleantech Accelerator” beginning in May 2022.