Informational Webinars
Want to learn more about West Gate and the Cohort 5 application process?
Register now for one of our upcoming informational webinars:
Webinar 1: Sept. 25, 2025 at 12:00 MT
Webinar 2: Oct. 20, 2025 at 12:00 MT
The West Gate Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) supports promising innovators as they develop technology concepts into startups that are primed for growth.
Selected innovators are equipped with funding, entrepreneurial training, and technical assistance to speed their commercialization efforts.
To be eligible to participate in West Gate, you must:
- Be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent U.S. resident at time of application
- Have a technical degree (bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate’s)
- Have four-plus years of post-bachelor scientific research, engineering, or technology development experience
- Be a novice startup founder of a U.S.-based company
- If you have incorporated a company, you must have an ownership stake the company, and the company must not have raised more than $2 million in private funding at the time of this application
- Have a technology that:
- Is at least proof-of-concept stage (Technology Readiness Level 3+)
- Aligns with and leverages NREL’s research areas
- Addresses a large societal need that hinders Amer
ican competitiveness or energy efficiency - Falls within the program’s mission space as defined by our sponsors:
- Advanced computing technologies
- Advanced manufacturing processes
- Advanced materials
- Building energy technologies
- Critical minerals and materials
- Energy technologies and their manufacturing
- Energy-water nexus
- Grid components
- Grid energy storage
- Industrial efficiency technologies
- Manufacturing digitization
- Platform technologies to advance scientific research
- Recovery, reuse, and recycling technologies
- Semiconductor manufacturing
- Transportation efficiency
- Other technologies that further the U.S. Department of Energy's mission of ensuring America's security and prosperity by addressing its energy and nuclear challenges.
Contact us if have questions or experience any issues during the application process.
For more information about West Gate, visit our website.
West Gate Cohort 5 Application
Informational Webinars
Want to learn more about West Gate and the Cohort 5 application process?
Register now for one of our upcoming informational webinars:
Webinar 1: Sept. 25, 2025 at 12:00 MT
Webinar 2: Oct. 20, 2025 at 12:00 MT
The West Gate Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) supports promising innovators as they develop technology concepts into startups that are primed for growth.
Selected innovators are equipped with funding, entrepreneurial training, and technical assistance to speed their commercialization efforts.
To be eligible to participate in West Gate, you must:
- Be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent U.S. resident at time of application
- Have a technical degree (bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate’s)
- Have four-plus years of post-bachelor scientific research, engineering, or technology development experience
- Be a novice startup founder of a U.S.-based company
- If you have incorporated a company, you must have an ownership stake the company, and the company must not have raised more than $2 million in private funding at the time of this application
- Have a technology that:
- Is at least proof-of-concept stage (Technology Readiness Level 3+)
- Aligns with and leverages NREL’s research areas
- Addresses a large societal need that hinders Amer
ican competitiveness or energy efficiency - Falls within the program’s mission space as defined by our sponsors:
- Advanced computing technologies
- Advanced manufacturing processes
- Advanced materials
- Building energy technologies
- Critical minerals and materials
- Energy technologies and their manufacturing
- Energy-water nexus
- Grid components
- Grid energy storage
- Industrial efficiency technologies
- Manufacturing digitization
- Platform technologies to advance scientific research
- Recovery, reuse, and recycling technologies
- Semiconductor manufacturing
- Transportation efficiency
- Other technologies that further the U.S. Department of Energy's mission of ensuring America's security and prosperity by addressing its energy and nuclear challenges.
Contact us if have questions or experience any issues during the application process.
For more information about West Gate, visit our website.