Innovation Crossroads

Home

Innovation Crossroads

Empowering Aspiring Hard-Tech Entrepreneurs

Starting new energy-related technology companies can be challenging, and that’s one reason the number of energy start-ups has declined significantly over the past decade. Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, is supported by the US Department of Energy—including the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, Building Technologies Office, Office of Electricity, and Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program and Basic Energy Sciences program—and by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The program leverages Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) unique scientific resources and capabilities and connects the nation’s top innovators with experts, mentors, and networks in technology-related fields to take world-changing ideas from R&D to the marketplace.

Innovation Crossroads is a two-year fellowship program that focuses on energy and advanced manufacturing technologies. Through an annual national call and competitive stage-gate process, top entrepreneurial-minded fellows are selected to join the program. Selected innovators receive a fellowship that includes a personal living stipend, a health insurance stipend, a travel allowance, a substantial grant to use on collaborative R&D at ORNL, and comprehensive mentoring assistance to build a sustainable business model.

By embedding the next generation of top technical talent within ORNL, Innovation Crossroads positions entrepreneurial researcher fellows to address fundamental energy and manufacturing challenges identified by industry.

Program Impacts

51

Start-ups supported

342+

Jobs created

$319.5 million

In follow-on funding

23

Start-ups with sales

$40+ million

In sales revenue

30

Patents granted

Featured News

  • Rolls of Ateios’ lithium iron phosphate and graphite electrodes offer higher energy density and higher capacity retention at lower costs. Credit: Ateios Systems

    Ateios Systems leverages ORNL tech to strengthen US battery supply chain

    Batteries power everything from cellphones to medical devices to defense systems. In 2021, Ateios Systems licensed technology from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to make battery manufacturing faster and cheaper—an innovation that now underpins the nation’s only domestic battery electrode supply chain, strengthening both economic and national security. Ateios Systems has continued to build on ORNL’s initial innovation, establishing

    Read Article
  • Portrait of a bald man wearing blue-framed glasses, a dark blazer, and a light blue striped shirt, standing with arms crossed against a dark blue studio background.

    Qubit Engineering debuts AI-powered tool to analyze the modern power grid

    Qubit Engineering, part of the 2023 Innovation Crossroads cohort at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, recently launched Neuro-Grid, a computational tool that uses artificial intelligence for real-time, high-accuracy analysis of the power grid to offer insights not available through classical computing. Qubit leveraged Frontier, the world’s first exascale supercomputer housed at ORNL’s Oak Ridge

    Read Article
View All News

Want to receive updates?

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!