The Challenge: Leveraging Federal Support for Innovation
Several federal agencies support clean energy innovation, but their awardees must often supply a significant share of total project costs. This can be an obstacle for both academic researchers and innovative small businesses pursuing federal awards.
About AmplifyMass
AmplifyMass supports academic researchers and companies who need cost-share or adders for federal/non federal prime awards. AmplifyMass provides up to $300,000 for academic or company projects pursuing cost-share or adders for federal or non-federal prime awards (such as awards from ARPA-E, NSF, DOE, and USABC), or up to $100,000 for academic projects that are not tied directly to a prime grant. The program supports projects that aim to commercialize or substantially de-risk an innovation that falls within MassCEC’s mission.
Funding Schedule
AmplifyMass operates on a rolling basis. Awards are subject to availability.
Process Step | Timing |
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Submit application | Rolling |
Notification of award | 3 to 6 months from submission |
Contracting concludes | About 1 month from award notification |
Who's Eligible
Eligible applicants include Massachusetts-based cleantech small businesses and academic institutions/universities.
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Proposals must satisfy the definition of “clean energy” as explained in the AmplifyMass Application Process and Eligibility document.
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Companies
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Must be a small business as outlined by the United States Small Business Administration’s “Table of Small Business Size Standards” and must have a significant Massachusetts presence
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May apply for projects pursuing cost share or adders for a federal/non-federal prime award (such as awards from ARPA-E, NSF, DOE, and USABC) only
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For cost share support, applications must be submitted before the primary funding is contracted.
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Massachusetts Academic Institutions/Universities
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May apply for projects pursuing cost share or adders for a federal/non-federal prime award (such as awards from ARPA-E, NSF, DOE, and USABC). Note: Awards are typically a fraction of the required cost share and the total project cost.
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For cost share support, applications must be submitted before the primary funding is contracted. Certain exceptions may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
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Academic/university applicants may also submit applications for individual or follow-on projects that are not cost share or simultaneous “adder” scopes. Such applications must aim to commercialize an innovation or substantially de-risk an innovation for commercialization purposes. Applications without a prime grant or which follow a concluded prime grant will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. These awards are capped at $100,000 apiece.
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For full Program details, please refer to the AmplifyMass Application Process and Eligibility document.
Apply
Application Process
The review and selection process entails several steps:
- MassCEC ensures that applicants meet the program’s eligibility criteria.
- Applications are submitted to subject-matter experts for technical review.
- Applications are surveyed by an internal award selection committee to identify the most compelling proposals among the competitive AmplifyMass pool, based on the review criteria.
- Upon confirming eligibility and funding availability, MassCEC will issue a firm commitment letter to provide cost share. A funding agreement will be provided for review at this time.
- Upon execution of funding agreements with both MassCEC and the corresponding prime award (if applicable), funds will be disbursed to awardees based on mutually agreed-upon milestones and deliverables, as negotiated per the contract.
Please review our sample grant agreements for universities and companies, as applicable. If you have any questions or concerns about these templates, please submit them along with your application.
For full Program details, please refer to the AmplifyMass Application Process and Eligibility document.
Application Materials
Sample Grant Agreements
Send completed application to: amplifymass@masscec.com
Learn About AmplifyMass
MassCEC hosted a webinar about Catalyst & DICES/Amplify Mass webinar on September 28, 2023. The webinar included a brief overview of MassCEC and MassVentures' technology to market and investments programs, followed by more detail about the Amplify, DICES and Catalyst programs.
Presented by Leslie Nash, Program Director at MassCEC, Maddy Zeliff, Program Coordinator at MassCEC, and Priya Yadav, Vice President of Investment at MassVentures.
FAQs
Additional Resources
The Massachusetts Founder Network aims give Massachusetts startup founders equitable access to resources that will help their companies grow.
Learn about Incubators and Accelerators in Massachusetts.
Past Awardees
Electrified Thermal Solutions
Awarded $300,000 with prime source funding from DOE-EERE-IEDO.
Electrified Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ETS) is developing the innovative Joule Hive™ Thermal Battery to provide high temperature heat to several hard-to-abate sectors, such as cement and steel industries.
rStream
Awarded $125,000 with prime source funding from NSF SBIR Phase I.
rStream is developing hardware and software to automate disposal decisions to supply waste haulers with premium recyclables.
GridEdge
Awarded $510,000 with prime source funding from NYSERDA.
GridEdge has developed a turnkey system solution named DERCOM that enables distributed energy resources flexible integrations and grid services.
ADL Ventures, Inc.
Awarded $125,000 with prime source funding from DOE-EERE-BTO.
ADL Ventures, Inc aims to develop a collaborative that accelerates the delivery of deep energy retrofit and new construction technologies to the market.
Fraunhofer USA
Awarded $87,057 with prime source funding from DOE-EERE.
Fraunhofer USA aims to develop a novel, technology-assisted approach to conducting thermal retrofits in buildings.
Triton Systems, Inc.
Awarded $200,000 with prime source funding from NOWRDC.
Triton Systems, Inc aims to develop and commercialize an innovative floating offshore wind anchoring system and installation tool.
Additional Funding Opportunities
InnovateMass
$350,000
Rolling
2030 Fund
Catalyst and DICES
$75,000
March 14, 2024