Fed Funding News

For companies with cost-shared projects in three areas: enhanced recovery from unconventional oil and gas reservoirs, including the use of carbon dioxide as an injectant; advanced characterization of fracture propagation, proppant behavior, and well diagnostics; and field testing of produced-water treatment technologies. Up to $150 million in federal funding. Modification 000003 made three changes worth knowing: it removed the cost-share requirement for demonstration-level projects, it removed the technoeconomic assessment requirement from Topic Areas 1b, 1c, and 2, and it now requires a letter of intent from your industry partner at the time of application, with a letter of commitment due before award negotiation. That last one is a responsiveness item — it cannot be fixed in the final week. Application deadline September 8, 2026.

Open to small businesses working in artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology, or advanced materials, applied to the Department of Energy's Genesis Mission. This round uses a short pitch application first, due September 10, 2026; only companies invited after that review submit a full application. Roughly 40 awards are planned, and a full application requests up to $250,000. A broader Phase I round covering additional topics is expected later this fall.

For companies with cost-shared projects in three areas: converting stranded, flared, or contaminated gas streams into transportable products; advanced materials and equipment that improve infrastructure reliability and prevent product losses, such as compressors, valves, piping, storage tanks, coatings, and alloys; and digitalization — continuous monitoring systems, AI-supported digital twins, and smart test sites across upstream and midstream operations. Up to $65.5 million in federal funding. Applications close at midnight beginning September 22, 2026 — in practice, end of day September 21. The eXCHANGE system disables the submit button automatically at the deadline and does not extend for server congestion.

Universities apply; companies get in as the required partner. Prime eligibility is restricted to U.S. institutions of higher education — awards up to $750,000 over 36 months, 0–15 awards from a $10.75 million pool, and no cost share required. Every application must include a letter of commitment from a non-academic partner: a for-profit company, nonprofit, state or local government, or Tribe. Two scoring criteria worth 55% of the total grade evaluate that partnership directly, so the partner is not a formality. If you have technology at the proof-of-concept stage and no way to fund the next step, a university partnership here is a genuine path. Work must map to a named priority initiative under Coal, Oil & Gas, or Geothermal; anything outside those is rejected without review. Expected technology readiness is TRL 2–4 at start, TRL 3–5 at completion. A letter of intent by October 1 is mandatory — without one you cannot submit an application. Full application due October 16, 2026. The program repeats in 2027 and 2028. One exclusion to check before you invest time: the non-academic partner cannot be a single-owner LLC or a sole proprietorship.

For small businesses that hold an eligible DOE Phase I or Phase II award from a prior year. The Department of Energy is contacting eligible recipients directly with application requirements and timelines. Approximately $147 million is available to continue advancing funded technologies toward commercialization.

AI watermarking arrived in August. But without a detection algorithm, no agency can employ automation to analyze the tags. The filtering that does exist is policy and people: NIH will not treat applications substantially developed by AI as original ideas of the applicant, and now caps each PI at six per year. NSF requires disclosure. What still decides an application is whether anyone thought about it.

On July 13, 2026, the Department of War suspended CMMC Phase II — the third-party assessment requirement scheduled to begin November 10, 2026 — under USD(A&S) Memorandum 26-P-1023, and opened a 60-day review. Where things stand now: the industry RFI closed August 14, so the comment window is shut. The CMMC Reform Task Force reports to the DoW CIO in mid-September, roughly four weeks out. During the review, contracting activities may designate only Level 1 (Self) or Level 2 (Self); Level 2 (C3PAO) and Level 3 (DIBCAC) designations are not permitted and no waivers will be granted. For contracts already carrying Phase II requirements, contracting officers will remove them by modification before the next option period or at the next administrative modification. What did not change is the part that matters most: DFARS 252.204-7012, NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2, SPRS scores, and incident reporting obligations all remain in force, and False Claims Act exposure is unchanged. Government-led DIBCAC assessments continue. The certification mechanism is deferred pending a report next month — the underlying obligation to protect federal information did not go away. See About CMMC for the details.

Awarded, not open — included as a signal of where DOE money is moving. The Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation selected five projects to share $75 million to produce rare earth elements and other critical materials, including germanium, gallium, and aluminum, from coal and coal-based feedstocks at pilot-scale industrial facilities. It is part of a larger critical-minerals push announced in 2025. This particular round is closed, but it points to a funding direction worth watching.