Activate New York

Join an innovation ecosystem poised to lead on climate tech and clean energy.

Turn your innovation into impact. Join the Activate New York Community of entrepreneurial scientists and spend two years translating your groundbreaking research into new products and businesses that can address society’s most urgent needs. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA’s) support will fund fellows developing carbontech innovations—solutions that can enable capture, storage, and utilization of carbon. Fellows in the Activate New York Community support New York State’s climate and clean energy goals to reduce carbon emissions by 85 percent and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. By joining this innovation ecosystem, you can help accelerate decarbonization across our target verticals.

ACTIVATE NEW YORK – BENEFITS AT A GLANCE

• Join a community of climate-tech and hard-tech innovation leaders 

• A yearly living stipend up to $110,000 plus a health insurance stipend and travel allowance

• $100,000 in research funding and access to at least $100,000 in additional flexible capital

• Mentorship and support from a dedicated fellowship team

• A program of intensive entrepreneurial training

• Networking with Activate’s expansive community across sectors

New York’s Innovation Ecosystem.
Activate’s Support.

Activate’s experience supporting almost 200 Activate Fellows since 2015 has strengthened our conviction that guiding science entrepreneurs from a strong idea to a marketable product—the zero-to-one journey—requires a high level of support and resources. New York is home to a vibrant and growing innovation ecosystem, bolstered by excellent research and development infrastructure and a state government committed to leading the country in carbontech.

With support from a coalition of organizations, including NYSERDA, the Grantham Environmental Trust, Additional Ventures, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, we identify, fund, and support fellows who are developing new processes and products in the following technology areas:

• Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR): Carbon removal technologies, including but not limited to direct air or ocean capture, biomass energy with carbon capture and storage, and mineralization, aim to address legacy emissions to facilitate gigaton-scale carbon removal. Together, Activate and Frontier are building a key milestone for any startup—landing a first customer. Frontier will offer up to five fellows, whose technology meets its target criteria and addresses one of its RFP areas of interest, a $100,000 prepurchase agreement. With these contracts, fellows will reduce market risk so their focus can remain on technology development and accelerating toward commercialization.

• Point-Source Carbon Capture: Point-source capture technologies focus on collecting emissions associated with infrastructure that are expected to persist over a long period of time, including fossil-fuel based power generation and CO2-emitting industrial sectors like cement and steel.

• Carbon-Dioxide Conversion: Carbon conversion recycles CO2 into value-added products such as CO2-based building materials, fuels, and chemicals, in an effort to develop the industries of the future. There are a variety of approaches, including mineral carbonation, catalytic conversion, and biological approaches. Methane capture and conversion applications will also be considered.

• Carbon Storage: Carbon storage innovation is critical to enable effective and permanent point-source capture and removal. New approaches are needed to develop the infrastructure for reliable carbon storage and foster the research, development and demonstration to improve performance and reduce cost.

• Measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV): Measuring carbon removal accurately in the field is critical to unlocking the carbon removal markets. New approaches and sensor systems that can be deployed at scale to monitor the carbon captured and removed are needed. 

Launch your entrepreneurial journey in a leading climate-tech hub, with access to the resources, training, and network you need to turn your idea into impact.

Activate New York Partners

Activate was awarded $9.15 million as part of the $19.5 million Carbontech Development Initiative, administered by NYSERDA. Through this support, New York will attract climate-tech leaders and build a global carbon-to-value innovation ecosystem.

Fellows at Activate New York will benefit from our host laboratory partners at Columbia University, which has a strong culture of interdisciplinary, cross-cutting research supporting applied science. Columbia is a global leader in carbontech research, having developed expertise in CO2 capture, CO2 conversion to products, and related fields, including low-carbon hydrogen, systems engineering, and electrochemical energy storage. Columbia researchers started developing carbon dioxide removal technology, including direct air capture and carbon mineralization, 20 years ago.

Columbia University is a vital partner in launching Activate New York, hosting fellows in research labs, and providing a base for Activate New York. Columbia also supports external climate tech research through the Columbia Startup Fellows (CSF) Program, which enables early-stage startups to access Columbia research facilities and specialized equipment. The CSF Program will host Activate Fellows, allowing them to leverage Columbia’s laboratories with state-of-the-art spectroscopic tools and analytical instruments. In addition to Activate’s educational resources and mentorship, Activate Fellows in New York will benefit from Columbia’s Lab-to-Market (L2M) accelerator training and mentoring programs and the Columbia Technology Ventures Executives-in-Residence Network.

Visit our FAQs to learn more about the fellowship and the Activate New York Community.  

 Activate New York in the News

Activate New York Team