DOE Expands Program to Help Jumpstart New Building Technologies
Focuses of program include heating and cooling systems, and sensors and controls
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Four U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories are joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to expand an online crowdsourcing community for building technologies called JUMP, which helps bridge the gap between cutting-edge ideas and the marketplace.
Joining ORNL in JUMP, which was launched by Oak Ridge National Laboratory last year, are Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The crowdsourcing platform offers innovators, particularly small entrepreneurs, a place to present ideas for new energy-efficient building technologies to private and public sector leaders in research and development. JUMP, which stands for Join in the discussion, Unveil innovation, Motivate transformation and Promote technology-to-market, now has six open technology challenges.
“It is exciting to see unique, diverse, and new to DOE individuals, startups, and entrepreneurs join in the JUMP community,” said Karma Sawyer, technology analysis and commercialization manager with DOE’s Building Technology Office. “Together we are tackling the technology and market challenges critical to advancing energy efficient buildings.
“We have more than 500 registered users on our JUMP crowdsourcing platform and we look forward to connecting an even larger community for innovation in the upcoming regional events with our national lab and industry partners.”
Each lab is seeking industry partners and innovators to join JUMP. Industry partners gain access to national laboratory expertise while helping shape technologies and services for the next generation of energy-efficient buildings. Innovators can connect to technology partners and may qualify for cash prizes, in-kind technical support, and recognition.
“By leveraging their individual research team and industry connections, each lab is co-developing calls for innovation relevant to the most pressing industry challenges, to accelerate technology to market,” said Melissa Lapsa, ORNL’s group leader for Whole-Building and Community Integration.
A.O. Smith, Building Robotics, Callida Energy, Clean Energy Trust, CLEAResult, Emerson Climate Technologies, General Electric, Honeywell, IntelliChoice Energy, and United Technologies Research Center have already joined the initiative to offer challenges focused on building technologies, including appliances, building analytics and information systems, building envelope, heating and cooling systems, lighting, and sensors and controls.
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Innovators are encouraged to view the JUMP technology challenges and submit their ideas. Industry stakeholders interested in crowdsourcing a technology challenge are invited to contact the JUMP team to get involved.
For more information, visit http://jump.ideascale.com.
Publication date: 4/28/2016
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