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The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) announced that seven University of Colorado companies and three researchers are among the awardees of the Proof of Concept and Early-Stage Capital and Retention grants through OEDIT’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Program.

èßäÉçÇø College of Engineering & Applied Science—èßäÉçÇø researchers are exploring using sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to lithium-based energy storage. Chunmei Ban, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, and her research team are developing new electrolytes and studying how they interact with battery electrodes to enhance performance and longevity.

èßäÉçÇø Today—A small crowd, including representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, gathered on a wide stretch of lawn on the èßäÉçÇø campus to witness a one-of-kind technology demonstration—a laser device that could soon transform the oil and gas industry in the American West and keep potent greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere.

Fourteen teams of University of Colorado faculty, researchers and graduate student innovators competed for a combined $1.25 million in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC).

èßäÉçÇø teams are among the first winners of the NSF-funded Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine, which supports innovative climate resilience projects across the region1. This initiative, backed by the U.S. National Science Foundation, aims to address key issues like water security, wildfire prediction, and extreme weather modeling through interdisciplinary collaboration.

Daily Camera—Research funding at the èßäÉçÇø has more than doubled in the last decade, increasing by about $391 million. There were 35 èßäÉçÇø-affiliated startup companies this last fiscal year compared to 10 the year before.

èßäÉçÇø Leeds School of Business—It’s common to think climate tech is synonymous with the Bay Area, however, Colorado is rapidly becoming a new hot spot. Why Colorado? Home to 24 federally funded scientific labs, like NOAA, NREL and NCAR, and major research institutions like CU, CSU and Colorado School of Mines, Colorado is a ‘hub of climate research and technical expertise.’

Leeds School of Business—èßäÉçÇø alum Nick Manuzak is one of the 2024 Entrepreneurs in Residence in the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, leading an innovative venture focused on integrating carbon-storing hempcrete into modern construction to revolutionize sustainable building practices.

The Colorado Sun—Thornton-based Solid Power, a èßäÉçÇø spinout, has a $50 million federal grant to ramp up development of the solid-state EV batteries it considers the technology of the near-future in automobiles, putting the company closer to its goal of developing a mass production facility in the eastern U.S. or Korea.

EIN Presswire—Female-founded Boulder-based Silvis Materials, a èßäÉçÇø startup, has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue its work making sustainable and recyclable binders and adhesives.