Innovation Crossroads

Innovation Crossroads, a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the Southeast’s only entrepreneurial research and development program based at a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory. Innovation Crossroads was founded to address the critical need to accelerate the applied research, development, and deployment of technologies based in the physical sciences, such as materials and manufacturing, that are capable of transforming the nation’s energy systems. Driving these technologies from laboratory to commercialization requires both collaborative research and development and the entrepreneurial development of the innovators working on these technologies. Innovation Crossroads supports and mentors entrepreneurial researchers whose early-stage innovations are presently too challenging or technically uncertain to pursue in a venture capital-financed startup. Innovators are selected for the program through an annual competition. Innovation Crossroads embeds innovators at ORNL for up to two years for entrepreneurial mentorship and to conduct cooperative research and development with the intention of incubating and translating innovations from proof-of-concept to proof-of-product. This unique fellowship opportunity allows selected innovators to leverage the ORNL’s world-leading scientific facilities, equipment, capabilities, and experts to advance their early-stage scientific discoveries into potential commercial opportunities within a relatively short period of time. The program is supported by ORNL, DOE Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), Building Technologies Office (BTO), Office of Electricity (OE), Office of Science (SC) Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).