News and events

Win Funding: How to Write a Competitive Proposal - 245th Electrochemical Society Meeting, San Francisco, CA - May 29, 2024 https://www.electrochem.org/245/

The workshop which will be led by Michel Foure, CEO of Berkeley Grant Writing LLC, is offered in the context of the Professional Development Program of the Electrochemical Society. Should you plan to attend the ECS meeting and if your career trajectory and/or the success of your organization hinges on leveraging government grants, make sure you check it out. https://www.electrochem.org/professional-development.

UNIGRID Inc. receives NSF SBIR Phase II award to advance its solid-state sodium-ion battery technology. (April 2024)

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a SBIR Phase II grant to UNIGRID Inc. for its proposal entitled “Sodium-Based All-Solid-State Batteries for Stationary Energy Storage” https://seedfund.nsf.gov/awardees/history/details/?company=unigrid-inc. NSF’s goal is to help startups and small businesses to transform their ideas into marketable products thus fostering innovation and helping create businesses and jobs in the United States. https://seedfund.nsf.gov/

UNIGRID Inc. https://www.unigridbattery.com/, a University of California, San Diego spin-off startup based in San Diego, California, is dedicated to developing safe, affordable, and sustainable sodium-ion batteries. In this NSF project, UNIGRID is developing a breakthrough solid-state battery for stationary storage applications such as residential and grid storage. The battery is completely nonflammable, features high energy density, low cost, and excellent longevity.

Darren Tan, the CEO of UNIGRID stated: “Berkeley Grant Writing’s responsiveness, experience, and valuable input on our grant applications have made us not only better grant writers, but better communicators about our company and our value propositions. We thank Michel for providing such superb services”.

Erik Wu, the CTO of UNIGRID, added: “We are very happy to have been awarded the NSF SBIR Phase II grant, which to us, is further validation of the importance of clean energy and our company’s mission to deliver a low-cost, abundant, and safe sodium-ion battery technology. Michel’s timeliness and feedback have helped us immensely on our proposal preparation”.

Rejuvenation Technologies receives a $3.98 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (January 2024)

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its client Rejuvenation Technologies Inc https://rejuvenationtech.com/ received a $3.98 million TRAN 1 grant entitled “Telomerase mRNA for short telomere related pulmonary fibrosis” from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) https://www.cirm.ca.gov/our-progress/awards/telomerase-mrna-short-telomere-related-pulmonary-fibrosis/. The objective of Translational Research Projects is to create a highly competitive opportunity for promising regenerative medicine projects that accelerate completion of translational stage activities necessary for advancement to clinical study of stem cell-based or gene therapy therapeutic candidates. https://www.cirm.ca.gov/about-cirm/partnering-opportunity-translational-research-projects

Rejuvenation Technologies, a Stanford University spin-off biotechnology start-up based in Mountain View, California, is devoted to reversing the molecular mechanisms of aging. Telomeres are DNA sequences protecting the end of each chromosome. As we age these sequences are degraded and thus telomeres represent a fundamental aging clock. Reversing telomere shortening would potentially prevent several age-related diseases. Delivery of TERT mRNA extends telomeres sufficiently in a few days to reverse over a decade of telomere shortening during normal aging. Based on this discovery, Rejuvenation Technologies is advancing such TERT mRNA-based therapies to the clinic. The CIRM grant will help the company to develop a safe and effective therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly disease affecting an estimated 200,000 Americans. “We are thrilled to receive this CIRM TRAN1 award to bring advanced RNA therapeutics to patients,” said John Ramunas, CEO of Rejuvenation Technologies. “Berkeley Grant Writing helped significantly to enhance the expression, clarity, and impact of our proposal. Michel is a great pleasure to work with – always adding value efficiently and professionally and with a smile.”

“Michel’s experience is highly relevant to CIRM proposals in particular and it shows in his work. We look forward to continuing to work with Berkeley Grant Writing in the future,” said Glenn Markov, COO of Rejuvenation Technologies.

Win Funding: How to Write a Competitive Proposal Workshop - 243th Electrochemical Society Meeting, Boston, MA - May 31, 2023 https://www.electrochem.org/243

The workshop which will be led by Michel Foure, CEO of Berkeley Grant Writing LLC, is offered in the context of the Professional Development Program of the Electrochemical Society. Should you plan to attend the ECS meeting and if your career trajectory and/or the success of your organization hinges on leveraging government grants, make sure you check it out. https://www.electrochem.org/professional-development.

Why should one attend? Whether your career takes you to industry, academia, or a national lab, chances are that you will be intimately involved in writing research grant proposals. In fact, your career growth may largely hinge on your ability to raise funds. While each proposal is unique, very important guidelines lying at the intersection of the funding agency’s needs and your technical idea must be observed in order to maximize the probability of success. .

Koidra Inc receives a $3.77M grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (January 2023)

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its client Koidra Inc https://www.koidra.ai/ along with four academic partners received a $3.77 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study controlled environment agriculture, a process that extends the growing season, reduces waste, and yields more crops. The specific objective of this project is to increase crop productivity and production efficiency in greenhouses. Koidra is contributing the crux of the innovation: combining and harnessing the power of wireless sensor networks, model-based reinforcement learning and artificial intelligence to optimize the real-time control and operation of indoor farming. https://cfaes.osu.edu/news/articles/ohio-state-lead-research-and-development-project-help-greenhouse-growers-create

Koidra Inc, a start-up company based in Seattle, is a world-leading developer of AIoT-for-manufacturing. The company’s mission is to transform high-impact industries, enabling companies to meet sustainability and production goals by automating AIoT-powered digital decisions. Koidra has twice won the international Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge, a contest held at the Netherlands’ prestigious Wageningen University & Research.

Doan Ha, Director of Operations stated: “Securing a $3.77 million research grant from the USDA in partnership with universities is a major accomplishment for us. This funding will enable us to develop AI-based solutions for optimizing climate control and crop management in controlled environment agriculture (CEA). Michel played an important role in helping us develop the grant proposal and we look forward to collaborating with him on future grant opportunities.”

Sylvatex Inc awarded ARPA-E SEED grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (November 2022)

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its client Sylvatex Inc https://sylvatex.com/ received an ARPA-E SEED grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. It is now the third grant that Berkeley Grant Writing helps Sylvatex to secure.

Sylvatex, a company based in Berkeley, California has developed a Micelle Nanoparticle Synthesis Platform (MicroXTM). As a leading expert in renewable nanomaterials, Sylvatex is leveraging this sustainable technology to address the cost of the most expensive lithium-ion battery component: the cathode. Sylvatex will use a low-cost, high-yield, and simplified continuous approach to synthesize lithium iron phosphate iron (LFP) based cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) where the reactants flow and mix continuously. Sylvatex’s proprietary nanomaterial platform has already demonstrated a significant breakthrough in synthesizing cathode materials for LIBs. This project will demonstrate the feasibility of producing LFP-based materials with a controlled continuous approach which could reduce energy consumption by 80%, waste by 60%, and cost by 60% relative to the incumbent commercial process.

Virginia Klausmeier, CEO of Sylvatex stated: “This ARPA-E SEED grant is the third grant Michel helped us to obtain. For this one, we look forward to extending the developments we have already been able to scale with high-nickel content NMC into LFP as a key step to future proofing battery manufacturing. Michel has been such an extension of the team when it comes to writing this grant and was as dedicated to our success as we were. He is very complete in thinking along with strategy on what to highlight where, so the value creation is clear. We are lucky to work with him and will continue to do so!"

Beyond The Dome, Inc. awarded NSF SBIR Phase II grant (May 2022)

In another success for Berkeley Grant Writing LLC, its client Beyond The Dome, Inc. https://www.beyondthedome.com/ received a National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Phase II award. https://seedfund.nsf.gov/awardees/phase-2/details/?company=beyond-the-dome-inc

NSF’s goal is to help startups and small businesses to transform their ideas into marketable products thus fostering innovation and helping create businesses and jobs in the United States. https://seedfund.nsf.gov/

Beyond The Dome, a San Francisco, CA based start-up is developing a process to cleanly and completely destroy organic waste, extract more resources and energy from sludge and biosolids at wastewater treatment plants while considerably reducing the amount of biosolids that need to be shipped off-site for disposal. The process has the potential to reduce the amount of biosolids that need to be shipped off-site and landfilled by up to 85% as well as completely destroy emerging contaminants such as PFAS, pharmaceuticals and microplastics as well as odors and pathogens.

Dr. Sophie Mancuso, CEO of Beyond The Dome commented: I thoroughly enjoyed working with Michel. I worked on Phase I SBIR with Michel and decided to work again with him for Phase II. His very candid and direct feedback was incredibly valuable. Michel not only helps produce good proposals, he coaches very well. I learned a lot from the process and highly recommend working with him. For Phase II, Michel was instrumental in streamlining the process and focusing on the most important aspects of the proposal given that we were super busy as a team. I would follow his advice for proposal outline over that of the contractors assigned by NSF for Grant Writing.

The mission of Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is to help companies, national laboratories, and other institutions to craft extremely competitive research grant proposals. For more success stories please check http://www.berkeleygrant.com/news-and-events

Juvena Therapeutics awarded California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) TRAN1 grant (March 2022)

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its client Juvena Therapeutics https://www.juvenatherapeutics.com/ received a TRAN 1 grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The objective of Translational Research Projects is to create a highly competitive opportunity for promising regenerative medicine projects that accelerate completion of translational stage activities necessary for advancement to clinical study of stem cell-based or gene therapy therapeutic candidates. https://www.cirm.ca.gov/about-cirm/partnering-opportunity-translational-research-projects

Juvena Therapeutics, a start-up company based in Redwood City, is developing protein-based therapies for chronic and rare debilitating diseases. Juvena has developed an array of in-house machine learning, bioinformatics, and computational tools for high-throughput drug screening and preclinical validation to identify novel disease-modifying signaling proteins that can rejuvenate any tissue type. The CIRM $3.9M grant will help propel their neuromuscular and skeletal diseases protein drug candidates to the next stage of development, as noted in their recent press release.

Hanadie Yousef, PhD, CEO stated: “We are so thrilled to receive the CIRM award. Michel was incredibly helpful, and his support and experience in writing multiple successful grant proposals was instrumental to our success with this application. Michel consistently provided rapid feedback and support that ensured we met our deadlines. We hope to continue working with Berkeley Grant Writing LLC on many more applications.”  

Jeremy D. O’Connell, PhD, CSO added: “Berkeley Grant Writing provided crucial support in strategically crafting the diverse parts of this grant to successfully communicate with a challenging mix of lay, administrative, and scientific audiences involved. They were professional and responsive on a tight timeline.” 

Coreshell Technologies awarded NSF SBIR Phase II grant - September 2021

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a SBIR Phase II grant to its client Coreshell Technologies, Inc. https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/2081875. NSF’s goal is to help startups and small businesses to transform their ideas into marketable products thus fostering innovation and helping create businesses and jobs in the United States. https://seedfund.nsf.gov/

Based in San Leandro, CA Coreshell Technologies https://www.coreshelltech.com/ is developing thin-film battery electrode coating technology that will enable lower cost, longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries that require less battery management, allowing for wider deployment of energy storage. 

Jonathan Tan, CEO of Coreshell Technologies stated: “Obtaining a Phase II award is a giant milestone achievement for us as a company for it provides vitally important funding for us to grow our technology. We couldn’t have done it without the excellent support and guidance of Michel, who has been our grants guru from Coreshell’s earliest stages. We’re excited to continue working closely together and hope to achieve even bigger successes as we grow. “

Intropic Materials is granted the prestigious Activate Berkeley / Cyclotron Road Fellowship - June 2021

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its protégé, Intropic Materials was accepted into the 2021 cohort for Activate Berkeley Cyclotron Road, receiving financial sponsorship from the Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office. Active Cyclotron Road provides entrepreneurial scientists working to use technology to solve problems of global significance a suite of resources, including early-stage non-dilutive grant funding, access to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory equipment and scientists, mentorship, and access to an incredible interdisciplinary network.

Based in Oakland, CA Intropic Materials is working to bring forward a new bio-active products market. Their technology platform enables the stabilization of enzymes, the workhorses behind the biotech revolution, in non-cellular environments. This unlocks the potential for cleaner biomanufacturing of chemicals, both commodity and specialty, and new materials that respond to their environment. Their first market is compostable plastics, where the inclusion of degrading enzymes into the products enables them to self-destruct. https://www.activate.org/intropic-materials

Aaron Hall, Founder and CEO of Intropic Materials stated: “Activate Cyclotron Road is the perfect place to transition from an academic research scientist into an entrepreneur and turn our technical research into a commercially viable business. Michel has been a steadfast support in getting here and has contributed immensely to our early success. As our NSF I-Corps Industry Mentor, Michel sat in on the bulk of our 100 interviews, sharing perspective, insight, and helping shape our value propositions and identification of product market fit. As an advisor, he helped me build the type of compelling narrative needed for acceptance into the highly competitive Activate fellowship. He brings to every encounter the rare combination of scientific expertise, deep industry insight, creativity, and genuine care for the people involved, and I’m grateful to have him in my court!”

DOE Advanced Manufacturing Office grant awarded to Sylvatex - December 2020

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its client Sylvatex Inc https://sylvatex.com/ received a grant for the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office in response to their Advanced Manufacturing Multi-Topic Announcement Number DE-FOA-0001980 https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/department-energy-awards-187-million-strengthen-us-manufacturing-competitiveness.

Sylvatex, a company based in Berkeley, California has developed a Micelle Nanoparticle Synthesis Platform (MicroXTM). As a leading expert in renewable nanomaterials, Sylvatex is leveraging this sustainable technology to address the cost of the most expensive lithium-ion battery component: the cathode. The Sylvatex process has the potential to slash energy consumption by up to 65% and reduce the cost of NMC cathode materials by up to 30% as compared to the incumbent process. For this project, Sylvatex is teaming up with the group of Dr. Kris Pupek at Argonne National Laboratory, whose mission it is to evaluate emerging synthesis techniques and develop scalable processes for manufacturing of advanced materials. https://www.anl.gov/

Virginia Klausmeier, CEO of Sylvatex stated: "Michel has been such an extension of the team when it comes to writing this grant and was as dedicated to our success as we were. He is very complete in thinking along with strategy on what to highlight where, so the value creation is clear. We are lucky to work with him and will do so in the near future!"

CalSEED grant awarded to Coreshell Technologies - November 2019

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that the CalSEED (California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development) Initiative just announced that its client Coreshell Technologies, Inc. is a recipient of the Concept Award, a grant administered on behalf of the California Energy Commission. CalSEED is an early stage grant funding and professional development program for diverse innovators working to bring clean energy concepts to market.

Based in Richmond, CA Coreshell Technologies is developing thin-film battery electrode coating technology that will enable lower cost, longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries that require less battery management, allowing for wider deployment of energy storage.  https://www.newenergynexus.com/news/california-sustainable-energy-entrepreneur-development-initiative-awards-3-75-million-to-2019-calseed-concept-winners/

Jonathan Tan, CEO of Coreshell Technologies stated: “Winning a CalSEED award was a critical grant for Coreshell's development and we were thrilled to be selected. It gives us both capital to develop our technology, as well as a direct connection to the California Energy Commission and we have Berkeley Grant Writing to thank for this award. Michel was able to not only understand Coreshell's technology, but also translate and construct a proposal around the technical concept that would resonate with the award committee. Our bid would have been greatly lacking in the right framing and structure without his keenly valuable insights!”

NSF SBIR Phase II grant awarded to Sylvatex - October 2019

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its client Sylvatex Inc (https://sylvatex.com/) received a National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Phase II grant to develop and commercialize a very low-cost and sustainable process for the manufacturing of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Sylvatex, a company based in Berkeley, California has developed a Micelle Nanoparticle Synthesis Platform (MicroX TM) https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/1644635. As a leading expert in renewable nanomaterials, Sylvatex is leveraging this sustainable technology to address the cost of the most expensive lithium-ion battery component: the cathode.

Virginia Klausmeier, CEO of Sylvatex stated: "We are extremely pleased to have achieved the NSF SBIR Phase II grant, which will provide us with all of the necessary funding for two full years of research and development into our green, renewable battery production technology. In addition to capital for personnel and materials, this award also will fund our access to a large battery consortium, providing us with access to state of the art labs and researchers, as well as many of the industry's leading companies, making this award a huge boost for our company. We are extremely grateful to Michel for helping us throughout the entire grant application process. From the initial framework of what the grant readers are looking for, a deep understanding of how to present our unique technology, perfecting our language, and even helping us craft follow up responses as the review panel came back with questions for us, Michel was instrumental to our success, easy to work with throughout the entire process, and we absolutely could not have done it without him!"

Crafting Compelling Research Grant Proposals - Wareham's Aquatic Park Center campus in Berkeley CA co-hosted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and QB3 East Bay Innovation Center. July 18 and August 15, 2019

This workshop is tailored for the QB3 East Bay Innovation Center hosted start-ups. It is structured in to two installments. In the first part on July 18, proposals essential guidelines will be discussed. On August 15, specific NSF SBIR Project Pitch examples will be reviewed and discussed.

Win Funding: How to Write a Competitive Proposal Workshop - 235th Electrochemical Society Meeting, Dallas TX May 27, 2019

The workshop is offered in the context of the Professional Development Program of the Electrochemical Society. Should you plan to attend the ECS meeting and if your career trajectory and/or the success of your organization hinges on leveraging government grants, make sure you check it out. https://www.electrochem.org/235/professional-development-workshops.

New NSF SBIR Successes - March 2019

Beyond The Dome, Inc. and Coreshell Technologies, Inc. have both received a National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Phase I award.

Beyond The Dome, a San Francisco, CA based start-up will develop a process to cleanly and completely destroy organic waste, extract more resources and energy from sludge and biosolids at wastewater treatment plants while considerably reducing the amount of biosolids that need to be shipped off-site for disposal. The process has the potential to reduce the amount of biosolids that need to be shipped off-site and landfilled by up to 85% as well as completely destroy odors and pathogens.

Sophie Mancuso, CEO of Beyond The Dome commented: “I thoroughly enjoyed working with Michel. His very candid and direct feedback was incredibly valuable. Michel not only helps producing good proposals, he coaches very well. I learned a lot from the process and highly recommend working with him.”

Based in Richmond, CA Coreshell Technologies will demonstrate the effectiveness of its unique lithium-ion battery electrode coating technology. Using a roll-to-roll process that can be seamlessly integrated into existing battery manufacturing lines, the proposed technology has the promise to deliver greater initial capacity, greater depth-of-charge over equivalent cycle-life, reduced manufacturing costs and, ultimately, the potential to reduce lithium-ion battery cost per kWh by 25% or more. For more details visit NSF at: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1843063&HistoricalAwards=false

Roger Basu, CTO of Coreshell Technologies stated: "We're ecstatic to receive this NSF Phase I award, as it provides exactly the resources needed to achieve our next key technical milestones. Before working with Berkeley Grant Writing, our record with grant proposals was quite poor; now we’re at 100% success, with hopefully more to come!”

New Success for Berkeley Grant Writing LLC Client - November 2018

Berkeley Grant Writing LLCs client Saratoga Energy Research Partners LLC (http://www.saratoga-energy.com/) has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Phase II award (https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1831078&HistoricalAwards=false). This is now the eighth grant received by Saratoga Energy in a bit more than two years! Saratoga Energy is a start-up based in Berkeley developing a breakthrough electrolysis process to manufacture low-cost and high-performance graphite and carbon nanotubes from carbon dioxide.

According to the NSF announcement: “The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is multilayered. There is the potential for creation of a carbon nanotubes manufacturing industry in the United States that will create hundreds of high-paying domestic manufacturing jobs advance U.S. leadership and knowledge in industrial electrochemistry… This SBIR Phase II project proposes to 1) electrochemically characterize carbon nanotubes as a cathode conductive additive for high-performance lithium-ion battery applications and 2) construct a small pilot-scale carbon nanotube manufacturing unit capable of producing 1 kg of product per day for retail distribution. Saratoga Energy Research Partners, LLC (Saratoga Energy), has developed a high-selectivity electrochemical process to convert carbon dioxide into carbon nanotubes. In the work conducted thus far, Saratoga Energy has established that its carbon nanotubes can be manufactured at a cost ~50X cheaper than the market price for state-of-the-art battery-grade carbon nanotubes.”

Delighted at the news of this new award, Drew Reid, CEO of Saratoga Energy stated: “We are thrilled to receive this new NSF award. Working with Berkeley Grant Writing has been a critical to Saratoga Energy's success with grants.”

The Art and Science of Writing Successful Proposals - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA - June 20 and June 22, 2018

This workshop is part of series prepared for Department of Energy labs. They are organized by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Human Resources Department in the context of professional development for postdoctoral scholars. http://postdocresources.lbl.gov/courses-workshops/

The Art and Science of Writing Successful Proposals - Joint Genome Institute - Walnut Creek, CA - June 12, 2018

This workshop is part of series prepared for Department of Energy labs. They are organized by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Human Resources Department in the context of professional development for postdoctoral scholars. http://postdocresources.lbl.gov/courses-workshops/

Grant Writing 101 Workshop - Electrochemical Society Meeting - Seattle, WA - May 16, 2018

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC  will offer a workshop on the art and science of research grant writing at the coming Electrochemical Society spring meeting in Seattle on May 16. Should you plan to attend the ECS meeting and if your career trajectory and/or the success of your organization hinges on leveraging government grants, make sure you check it out. The workshop is offered in the context of the Electrochemical Society Professional Development program. https://www.electrochem.org/233/professional-development-workshops

Writing a Successful Grant (Oct. 2017)

Workshop presented at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on October 12, 2017.  https://ipo.lbl.gov/blic/

New string of successes for Berkeley Grant Writing LLC’s client (Aug. 2017)

Berkeley Grant Writing LLC is delighted to report that its client Saratoga Energy (http://www.saratoga-energy.com/), continuing its streak of successes, has been awarded three new R&D grants in 2017. Saratoga Energy is a start-up based in Berkeley developing a breakthrough electrolysis process to manufacture low-cost and high-performance graphite and carbon nanotubes from carbon dioxide. The new awards are as follow:

1.       Department of Energy FY2017 SBIR Phase I grant ($150,000) to demonstrate the feasibility of carbon nanotubes to prepare thick electrodes for high-energy batteries for electric vehicles. https://energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-announces-nearly-9-million-small-businesses-focused-clean-energy

2.       Department of Energy FY2017 Phase II grant ($1 million) to optimize its process to manufacture graphite from carbon dioxide and demonstrate fast-charging ability in large format lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. https://energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-announces-nearly-32-million-innovative-small-businesses-focused

3.       California Energy Commission CalSEED grant ($150,000) to demonstrate the use of carbon nanotubes for low-cost, extremely durable and safe lithium-ion batteries for grid storage applications. https://www.calcef.org/news/california-clean-energy-fund-grants-12-million-to-calseed-concept-award-winners/

These awards come after the four others previously reported:

-          a Department of Energy (DOE) SBIR Phase I

-          a Small Business Voucher from DOE Vehicles Technologies with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

-          a Small Business Voucher from DOE Advanced Manufacturing with Oak Ridge National Lab

-          a NSF SBIR Phase I

This series of seven awards in a row in for seven applications submitted in less than two years represents an exceptional and perhaps unprecedented feat in the extremely competitive business of government grants.

A year and a half year ago, while considering hiring the services of Berkeley Grant Writing LLC, Drew Reid, CEO of Saratoga Energy commented that he “had not had much success with grants.”  This has changed. A perfect score of seven awards for seven proposals filed. Winning a research grant obviously requires an innovative technical idea and the potential to be disruptive in the market place. But the proposal needs also to be show cased in the most compelling light: this is how Berkeley Grant Writing helps to differentiate its clients proposals from the crowd.

New Research Grant Successes (Aug. 2016)

A couple of months ago, Berkeley Grant Writing announced that, for its very first project, it was able to assist its (also first) client to obtain their first DOE SBIR grant. We now can reveal that this client was Saratoga Energy (http://www.saratoga-energy.com/). In 2016, Berkeley Grant Writing has assisted Saratoga Energy in winning over $500,000 in DOE awards. Saratoga Energy is a start-up based in Berkeley developing a breakthrough electrolysis process to manufacture low-cost and high-performance graphite from carbon dioxide.

In a next step, Berkeley Grant Writing was able to help Saratoga Energy to obtain two Small Business Vouchers (https://www.sbv.org/) as just communicated by DOE. The mission of the DOE Small Business Voucher Program is to provide U.S. small businesses with unparalleled access to the expertise and facilities of its national laboratories. The first Small Business Voucher was on the Vehicles track. Saratoga Energy will be working with Dr. Vince Battaglia, Head of the Energy Storage Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Berkeley Lab Energy Storage Group is one of the world's leading centers for advanced battery research (https://esdr.lbl.gov/group/energy-storage). Dr. Battaglia’s lab is widely considered as the leader in the field of electrode characterization and cell failure analysis. The objective of this voucher will be to demonstrate the performance of Saratoga Energy graphite in an optimized full cell as well as to confirm its exceptional charge-rate capabilities.

The second Small Business Voucher, on the Advanced Manufacturing track, is aimed at identifying an energy-efficient process suitable for high-throughput purification of the graphite manufactured by Saratoga Energy’s patented route. For this voucher, Saratoga Energy will harness the expertise of Drs.  Cristian Contescu and Nidia Gallego of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ORNL has the nation’s most comprehensive materials research program and is a world leader in research that supports the development of advanced materials for energy generation, storage, and use (https://www.ornl.gov/science-area/advanced-materials). The Carbon and Composites Group of the Division of Materials Science and Technology has a remarkable set of core capabilities that directly relate to Saratoga Energy needs to develop a unique purification process for its graphite material.

Totally unrelated to the above projects and grants, Berkeley Grant Writing recently also worked closely with Research Scientist Dr. Emma Stewart, Deputy of the Grid Integration Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Grid Integration Group studies the infrastructure that is compatible with requirements of electric system grid operators and electric utility companies while serving the loads and needs of electricity customers (https://gig.lbl.gov/). In this effort, Berkeley Grant Writing assisted in the development of two concept papers for the ENERGISE DOE Solicitation. The goal of this DOE initiative is to help software developers, solar companies, and utilities accelerate the integration of solar energy into the grid (http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/funding-opportunity-announcement-enabling-extreme-real-time-grid-integration-solar). As a result of Berkeley Grant Writing assistance, in a key step, the two concept papers submitted by the PI were “encouraged” and Dr. Stewart will submit full proposals.