Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Overview (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video NREL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Overview.

This video highlights IEC's focus on connecting people and ideas—from partners and researchers to entrepreneurs, investors and customers—to bring economically viable cleantech innovations to market through its programs and events.

[Music plays as a person begins speaking and the text "NREL Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (IEC)" appears on screen.]

>>Trish Cozart, director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, NREL: The NREL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, or IEC, is a center that's externally focused that's really working on connecting people and ideas. Our mission is building a cleantech ecosystem that empowers market solutions that transform communities around the world.

>>Christopher Johnson, Wells Fargo: It really shows the power of collaboration—what happens when groups come together, pool their resources and their different areas of expertise, and it creates really positive change.

>>Stephanie Regagnon, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center: So we have an amazing partnership with NREL and the IEC, and we are doing great work to bring new technologies to market.

>>Meghan Bader, Breakthrough Energy: We see a lot of challenges with entrepreneurs moving their climate technologies to market—from access to capital to how to find the right corporate partners, investment partners—and bringing this network together really helps provide an ecosystem of support for entrepreneurs in this space.

[Text on screen: Convening The Cleantech Ecosystem]

>>Trish Cozart: We really do three things in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. We convene the ecosystem at events—like the Industry Growth Forum, like the Innovation Showcase.

>>Nick Brozovic, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: They have the convening power that lets them bring not just the researchers but also corporations and funders and philanthropists and venture capitalists and the companies themselves all together in one place.

>>Henry Chung, Hyundai CRADLE: NREL sits right at the center of the ecosystem. The connections that they have are extensive, the events that they put on are wonderful. They bring the best investors and the best startups in these areas together regularly.

[Text on screen: Building Networks]

>>Trish Cozart: We also build networks. So we build networks of entrepreneurs. We build networks of researchers. We build networks of channel partners such as incubators and accelerators and university partners across the nation.

[Text on screen: Investor Advisory Board (IAB)]

>>Meghan Bader: We find immense value in the NREL IAB through networking and relationships with other investors active in the space with plugging into the resources and research knowledge of the laboratory and getting a pulse on the entrepreneurs working in the space.

[On screen: The text "Technology Incubation" above logos for the Shell GameChanger Accelerator Powered by NREL (GCxN); the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2); Energy I-Corps; NREL Industry Growth Forum; Chevron Studio; Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator (CECA); and West Gate]

>>Trish Cozart: And then the third thing we do is build technology incubation programs where startups can come evaluate their technologies in the lab and get de-risked for investment. Those would be GCXN, the Wells Fargo IN2 program and others, and then all the way to the Industry Growth Forum, where we're working with companies that are a little further along and making deals to actually raise major capital and scale up.

>>Shanti Pless, NREL Researcher: It really is kinda the front door, if you will, into the research. The programs that IEC offers allows us to work with those startups directly, help them through a technical challenge, help them grow as a startup to bring their energy-efficiency technologies closer to market.

>>Grant Gunnison, Zero: It's just a huge piece of validation for the experts in the world to say, "Actually, that could be very meaningful and we would help you build it."

>>Steven Slater, Pluton Biosciences: It gave us the opportunity to prove our technology, to show that our platform worked. That proof of concept is what allowed us to go into our seed round financing with some positive results that convinced some really great investors that they wanted to work with us.

>>Tim Woodward, Prelude Ventures: The entrepreneur gets to start a half a lap ahead of the curve just based on work that's being done here.

[Text on screen: NREL Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center – Activating Our Cleantech Ecosystem]

>>Stephanie Regagnon: I've been wildly impressed with how dedicated these folks are at NREL.

>>Trish Cozart: The challenges we're facing today really require old and new players working together in ways they really never have before. Everyone needs to get involved, and NREL has relationships across the value chains and has unique insights and abilities that bring needed stakeholders together.

[On screen: The NREL logo with the text "Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center" and the web address nrel.gov/innovate]