Aerial view of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s main campus. (ORNL photo)
The Department of Energy this week announced a new Small Business Vouchers Pilot Program that will allow small businesses to gain access to expertise — and some world-class research tools — at DOE’s national labs. One of the examples used was ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, which houses one of the world’s largest 3-D printers.
Of the five national laboratories sharing in the $20 million pilot effort, ORNL has the largest share with $5.6 million. Other labs are National Renewable Energy Laboratory ($4.9M); Lawrence Berkeley ($4.2M), Sandia ($2.8M) and Pacific Northwest ($2.7M).
“With this federal funding,” DOE said, “these labs will be providing vouchers, starting later this summer, to more than 100 small businesses, so they can access considerable lab expertise and tools that can help them test, validate, and introduce new products, expand their businesses, and grow the clean energy sector.”
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