WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it has chosen three venture capital firms to participate in DOE’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) pilot program. Through the EIR program, each firm will select an entrepreneur that will be placed in one of three DOE national laboratories to identify commercially viable laboratory-developed technologies and to help bring those technologies to market. DOE has selected Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers to work with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; ARCH Venture Partners to work with Sandia National Laboratory; and Foundation Capital to work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

According to the terms of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), each laboratory will host one entrepreneur at a time. DOE will provide $100,000 for each entrepreneur, with each venture capital firm contributing at least $100,000 of their own. The entrepreneurs will work directly with the laboratory staff to locate commercially viable technologies and will then conduct technology assessments, evaluate market opportunities, formulate preliminary business cases, and propose business structures in order to bring these technologies into the commercial market.

Publication date: 03/24/2008