Innovation Development Fund (IDF)

The Innovation Development Fund (IDF) provides LLNL researchers with funds to develop promising early stage technologies to mitigate investment risks for industry and other potential investors. IDF investments help bridge what is commonly referred to as the “valley of death”—the gap between when a technology is promising and when it moves forward into commercialization.

Targeting a broad range of technologies and applications, IDF is funded by a portion of the licensing fees and royalties retained by the Laboratory from the performance of authorized technology transfer initiatives. These funds support the enhancement of technology transfer activities at LLNL and are typically used for projects that include market research and technology maturation.

Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF)

LLNL researchers developing technology for commercialization benefit from the DOE Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF). TCF’s goal is to support the commercialization of DOE national lab technologies by maturing technologies.

HPC4 Energy Innovation

HPC for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) is a DOE-funded program to advance the national energy agenda by leveraging the world-class computational resources at the national laboratories. The program pays laboratories up to $300K for industry access to HPC resources and expertise while industry pays at least 20 percent of project costs. Companies submit concept papers and if accepted, a laboratory PI is assigned to help the company develop a full proposal. Winning proposals are selected by how well the technology advances the state of the art, the technical feasibility of the team, the project’s impact on industry, and its need for HPC systems.