Advanced BioFuels USA

(Activate.org) A two-year fellowship to turn your technology concept into a product.  TWO YEARS OF FUNDING
Fellows receive a yearly living stipend of $80,000 to $110,000 plus a health insurance stipend and travel allowance. This enables them to focus on their project full-time. Each project also receives $100,000 of research support at the host laboratory.

A COMMUNITY OF PEERS
Bringing technology to market can be a long and lonely road. Our fellows take this journey together as part of a dynamic community of scientists, engineers, and technologists who share what they know and celebrate each other’s victories.

AN UNRIVALED NETWORK
We facilitate connections between fellows and our broad network of industry executives, investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and other experts from academia, industry, government, and finance—any of whom can serve as advisors or partners.

RESEARCH FACILITIES
Fellows access vital research tools, equipment, facilities, and expertise through collaboration with the host laboratory. Activate takes no rights to fellows’ intellectual property and works to ensure that fellows retain ownership of any IP developed during their two-year fellowship term.

STARTUP CURRICULUM
Tailored for scientists and engineers and delivered weekly, our startup curriculum includes sessions on core business and product development concepts, VIP speakers, skill development workshops, and shared learning from other fellows and alumni.

RIGOROUS MENTORSHIP
Our experienced team meets with fellows one-on-one on a regular basis to help develop priorities, provide guidance, and make connections to our broader network of advisors, industry experts, and investors.

Activate brings fellows together across a growing network of close-knit communities led by Managing Directors with experience taking cutting-edge research to market. Each community receives intensive and personalized support from its local team.  

• Communities-in-residence support fellows in established and emerging innovation hubs across the U.S., which currently include Berkeley, CA, and Boston, MA. A strong presence in these locations ensures that the entire Activate Fellow community can leverage the country’s strongest innovation infrastructure & networks.

• Distributed communities ensures that any scientist or engineer in the country has access to the Activate Fellowship, through Activate Anywhere, even if they are unable to relocate to an in-residence location.

Fellows work across eight industries, aligned with our broader mission to address climate change and other global challenges by reinventing our economy to be sustainable, resilient, and equitable. In each of these sectors, Activate is assembling a coalition of funders, commercial partners, industry advisers, and technology experts to help guide you.

AGRICULTURE

CHEMICALS

COMPUTING

ELECTRICITY

MANUFACTURING

TRANSPORTATION

BUILDINGS

DEFENSE

We have also identified three Imperatives: specific, timely, and critical opportunities for outsized impact.* Working with our sponsors as well as our network of scientists, engineers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and other partners, we seek fellows who are developing products that promise to meet these imperatives.

The Advanced Manufacturing Imperative
We are seeking fellows dedicated to improving the energy and material efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness of our target industries.

The Carbon Dioxide Removal Imperative
We are partnering with a coalition of climate leaders to identify, fund, and support fellows whose innovations show strong potential to meet the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Imperative: removing CO2 from the atmosphere at volumes, timescales, and efficiencies adequate to meet aggressive climate goals.

The Microelectronics Imperative
We seek fellows dedicated to turning once futuristic ideas, such as quantum computers and next-generation sensor networks, into reality. These advances improve lives by increasing the prosperity, security, and sustainability of society and our shared infrastructure.

Watch Activate’s 2-minute video to learn more.   READ MORE