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A two-year fellowship to turn your technology concept into a product.
What We Provide
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Fellows receive a yearly living stipend of $90,000 - $110,000 plus a health insurance stipend and travel allowance. This enables them to focus on their project full-time. Each project also receives $100,000 in research funding and access to at least $75,000 in additional flexible capital.
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Bringing technology to market can be a long and lonely road. Our fellows take this journey together as part of a dynamic community of scientists, engineers, and technologists who share what they know and celebrate each other’s victories.
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We facilitate connections between fellows and our broad network of industry executives, investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and other experts from academia, industry, government, and finance—any of whom can serve as advisors or partners.
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Fellows access vital research tools, equipment, facilities, and expertise through collaboration with a host laboratory. Activate takes no rights to fellows’ intellectual property and works to ensure that fellows retain ownership of any IP developed during their two-year fellowship term.
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Tailored for scientists and engineers and delivered weekly, our startup curriculum includes sessions on core business and product development concepts, VIP speakers, skill development workshops, and shared learning from other fellows and alumni.
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Our experienced team meets with fellows one-on-one on a regular basis to help develop priorities, provide guidance, and make connections to our broader network of advisors, industry experts, and investors.
The Activate Fellowship Impact
Communities
Activate Fellows form close-knit communities across the United States. Each community receives intensive and personalized support from its dedicated team.
Activate Anywhere
In every part of the U.S., talented scientists and engineers are eager to launch their entrepreneurial journeys. Activate Anywhere is a new community of fellows who are connected but not co-located. Fellows work in their local innovation ecosystem, plugged into Activate’s national network of mentorship, education, community, and other resources they need to succeed.
Activate Berkeley
Activate Berkeley provides access to an unmatched research and innovation ecosystem. Since 2015, Activate has partnered with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Cyclotron Road program to support fellows accelerating the clean energy transition and pushing the boundaries of advanced computing. Activate’s partnership with the University of California, Berkeley gives fellows access to a deep well of additional research and laboratory resources.
Activate Boston
Activate Boston sits in the heart of a world-renowned innovation hub, a nexus for cutting-edge research from defense to energy to biotech. Fellows developing microelectronics access MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research laboratory operated for the U.S. Department of Defense by MIT. We work with Boston-area research organizations, including U Mass Boston’s Venture Development Center and Greentown Labs, to support fellows developing energy and climate technologies.
Activate Houston
Houston is the heart of the global energy industry, and the city is moving fast to become the energy transition capital of the world. Deep in the heart of Texas exist the educational institutions, people, companies, and spirit to drive new energy innovations that will lead us into the future. Our newest community is ready to be populated by the scientists and engineers who will benefit from the Activate Fellowship, and we couldn’t be more excited to branch out into this exciting ecosystem!
Activate New York
In launching our Activate New York Community we are collaborating with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Columbia University to forge New York State’s Carbontech Development Initiative and provide entrepreneurs with the resources, training, and global network needed to build and scale carbontech innovations.
Verticals
Fellows work across sixteen verticals, aligned with our broader mission to address climate change and other global challenges by reinventing our economy to be sustainable, resilient, and equitable. In each of these areas, Activate is assembling a coalition of funders, commercial partners, industry advisers, and technology experts to help guide you.
Featured
Fellowship
Sponsors
Leading innovation agencies and philanthropies support Activate Fellows.
The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science; advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and secure national defense. NSF is the only federal agency whose mission supports all fields of fundamental science and engineering disciplines, from mathematics, engineering, and geosciences to biological, behavioral, and computer sciences.
The DOE Advanced Manufacturing Office is the only technology development office within the U.S. government dedicated to improving the energy and material efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness of manufacturers across the industrial sector.
The California Energy Commission supports investments in clean energy technologies that promote greater electricity reliability, lower costs, and increased safety for ratepayers in California.
The DARPA Microsystems Technology Office works to ensure far-reaching improvements in electronics performance beyond the limits of traditional scaling by supporting research and development in microelectronic architectures, design, and materials and integration.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Science Program seeks to advance basic science through developing new technologies, supporting imaginative research scientists, and creating new collaborations at the frontiers of traditional scientific disciplines.
The Grantham Environmental Trust knows that climate change will require the best of humanity’s talent, leadership, and innovation. Along with environmental philanthropy, it makes investments in entrepreneurs and firms that are building solutions to the climate crisis.
NYSERDA's mission is to advance clean energy innovation and investments to combat climate change, improving the health, resiliency, and prosperity of New Yorkers and delivering benefits equitably to all.
In addition to those listed above, our growing coalition of sponsors allows us to support fellows across all of our industrial sectors. You can see our full list of partners here.
