The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is launching a challenge-based prize competition in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to reenergize innovation in U.S. manufacturing. The American-Made Challenge incentivizes the nation's entrepreneurs to reassert American leadership in the energy marketplace. This new challenge seeks to lower the barriers U.S.-based innovators face in reaching manufacturing scale by accelerating the cycles of learning from years to weeks while helping to create partnerships that connect entrepreneurs to the private sector and the network of DOE's National Laboratories across the nation.

The American-Made Challenge will bring together the world's best-in-class research base with its unparalleled entrepreneurial support system consisting of pioneering maker spaces, dozens of energy incubators, and 17 National Laboratories to create a sweeping portfolio of innovations primed for private investment and commercial scale-up.

NREL and DOE are finalizing the prize rules and intend to publish the prize rules within the next few weeks. When the prize rules are published, the application process will open. In the meantime, visit the Department of Energy website to learn more or contact the National Research Energy Laboratory at challenge@nrel.gov.