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 (LEEP) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is the Southeast’s only entrepreneurial R&D program based at a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory. DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) leads LEEP, which provides innovators with early-stage energy startups and/or emerging technologies with a two-year funded fellowship to develop and transition their ideas into the market. Innovation Crossroads is supported by ORNL; DOE, including the Office of Technology Commercialization, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, Building Technologies Office, Office of Electricity, Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, and Basic Energy Sciences program; and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Innovation Crossroads is a two-year fellowship program that supports innovators developing early-stage energy and emerging technologies with commercial potential. Through an annual national call and competitive stage-gate process, entrepreneurial-minded innovators are selected to join the program. Selected innovators receive a fellowship that includes a personal living stipend, health insurance support, travel and training support, access to ORNL’s world-class scientific facilities and capabilities, and comprehensive entrepreneurial mentoring to help advance their technologies and develop sustainable business models.
By embedding the next generation of top technical talent within ORNL, Innovation Crossroads positions entrepreneurial researchers to advance emerging technologies through collaborative R&D, leverage ORNL’s unique scientific resources, and transition promising innovations from the laboratory toward the marketplace.
Program Impacts
51
Start-ups supported
342+
Jobs created
$326.8 million
In follow-on funding
23
Start-ups with sales
$1.1 billion
In sales revenue
30
Patents granted
Featured News
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New Innovation Crossroads cohort tackles DOE’s toughest technology challenges
Six entrepreneurs have been selected for the next cohort of Innovation Crossroads, a Department of Energy Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program node (LEEP) based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The program provides energy-related startup founders from across the nation with access to ORNL’s researchers, facilities and technical expertise, as well as connect them with experts, mentors
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Megan O’Connor’s bold pivot turned waste into opportunity
It was a pivotal few weeks for Megan O’Connor. The doctoral student and her academic advisor attended a conference session about a way to recover copper from wastewater… and the next week she abandoned three years of research to pursue the technology.
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DOE’s LEEP Demo Day comes to Knoxville: 23 founders, $6B in alumni funding, and growth announced
The graduation brings LEEP’s total to 239 founders since the program launched roughly a decade ago. Those alumni have collectively raised more than $6 billion and created about 4,000 jobs. After two years of navigating the national labs, undergoing intense entrepreneurial programming, and building a functional business from the ground up, 23 founders are stepping
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