The Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the Fund for Energy Research with Corporate Partners. The goal of this fund is to advance innovative research at the nexus of energy and complementary pursuits while fostering corporate collaboration and partnerships.

Funding and Areas of Interest

Proposals can be submitted for one of two funding tiers:

Seed grant: This grant will provide up to $140,000 for a one-year project to seed new research. A letter of interest from a corporate partner is required.

Research grant: This grant will provide up to $235,000 of internal funding per year for a duration of one to three years. Collaborative, interdisciplinary, forward-looking projects involving multiple faculty and highly engaged corporate partners are encouraged in this category. Projects at this tier must have a minimum of 25% corporate contribution towards the total project budget. A letter of intent from at least one corporate partner is required (see “Proposal Submission Instructions” for additional detail).

Consideration will be given to proposals that are responsive to topics where energy research intersects with key areas such as decarbonization, infrastructure, data and information, materials, devices, systems, storage, or others, with clear connections to sustainable energy conversion, use, and management. Of particular interest are proposals that address one or more of the Andlinger Center’s Research Initiatives:

• Renewable Energy Systems
• Industrial Decarbonization
• Decarbonizing Buildings and Transportation
• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
• The Water-Energy-Resource Nexus
• Climate Resilience Engineering

These Initiatives provide avenues for convergent research that can blend faculty expertise in three complementary cross-cutting areas: Enabling Technologies, Systems Modeling, and Policy and Decision Making. The scope and potential topics of interest under each initiative are provided below as an Appendix.

Eligibility

Principal investigators (and co-PIs) must be full-time Princeton University faculty or research scholars. An individual may serve as investigator on no more than two proposals and may only be a lead investigator on one proposal. External collaborators are welcome but cannot receive funding from these awards. Researchers who have received a Research-tier award from the previous two cycles of this program are ineligible to serve as PI but may serve as a co-PI. Investigators who have previously received grants from the Andlinger Center must be up-to-date with report submissions before submitting a proposal in response to this call.

Disallowance of Financial Conflict

Funding from a company in which a PI has a significant financial interest is not allowed. For the purpose of this call, a PI has a significant financial interest in a company if they have received $5,000 or more in cumulative salary or payment for services during the previous 12 months, or if the combined value of any equity interest possessed by a PI in the company plus cumulative salary and payment for services during the past 12 months equals or exceeds $5,000. At the time of submission, the person submitting the proposal will be required to confirm that all PIs who would receive funding from an award have no financial conflicts.

Advice on Corporate Partnership for Seed-Tier Proposals

The Seed-tier award is fully funded by Princeton and is intended to foster collaborations between Princeton and the corporate partner. Under the awarded project, only data-use agreements and non-disclosure agreements, if required, will be considered between the corporate partner and Princeton. Any such agreements must be approved by the Office of Research and Project Administration.

Advice on Corporate Contributions for Research-Tier Proposals

100% of the corporate contribution must be provided either as a gift or through a sponsored research project, but not both. In-kind contributions from the corporate partner(s) are not allowable. Ahead of proposal submission, prospective PIs for Research-tier awards should discuss with their partner(s) whether the 25% corporate portion of the total project budget will be provided as a gift or through a sponsored research agreement. Should the corporate portion be provided as a gift, a gift letter will be required to memorialize the contribution. If the corporation choses to fund their portion as a sponsored research project, access to IP and requests for reports will be negotiated. Sponsored funding is subject to Princeton University’s federally-approved indirect cost rate of 64% of the modified total direct costs, and must be approved by the Office of Research and Project Administration. If you have questions about this, please consult our senior grants and finance manager, Ashlee Prewitt-Crosby, ashleep@princeton.edu.

Proposal Submission Instructions

To facilitate the review process, prospective PIs are encouraged to send an email of intent by February 9, 2026 to the Andlinger Center’s assistant director for research, Charlie Sharpless, csharpless@princeton.edu. The email should briefly describe the proposal goals, list team members, and name the potential corporate partner(s).

Proposals are due Monday, March 9, 2026 by 11:59 p.m and should be submitted through InfoReady.

Required elements of the proposal are:

• Cover page: must list lead PI, team members (names and affiliations, including corporate liaison), project title, total budget request, project abstract of no more than 250 words. The abstract is to include a statement outlining the practical implications of the research and potential impact on industry and society. If the proposal is targeting one or more of the Center’s Research Initiatives, that should be explicitly noted above the abstract.
• Scientific/technical narrative: no more than four pages, single-spaced, 12-point font, including tables and figures, that describe the project and address the intellectual merit and expected outcomes. References may be in addition to the stated number of pages.
• NSF-style biographies of PI and Princeton team members, submitted as a single pdf file.
• Current and pending support from all sources: for PI and team members, including the submitted proposal, noting for each project whether there is overlap between this proposal and existing funded research. If overlap exists, a brief statement describing such is required. This must be submitted as a single pdf file.
• Budget and justification (pdf document): allowable expenses include, but are not limited to, student stipends and tuition, postdoctoral and scholar salaries, travel, funds to execute gatherings (e.g., roundtables to bring experts together), publication costs, laboratory equipment, and materials and supplies associated with the project. Faculty summer salaries are not permissible under these awards.
• For Research-tier awards, the total project budget must detail Princeton expenses and corporate partner expenses; corporate partner budgets may not include corporate partner salaries and overhead. No university overhead will be charged to this grant, although overhead will be charged to corporate funds received under a sponsored research grant (see above, “Advice on Corporate Contributions for Research-Tier Proposals”). In-kind contributions from the corporate partner(s) are not allowable to satisfy the 25% corporate portion.
• Letter(s) of interest from corporate partner(s) that will highlight their interest and describe the nature of the collaboration. For Research-tier awards, letters must include a commitment to the 25% corporate contribution of the total project budget in cash.
• If desired, a list of one or more potential reviewers, internal to Princeton, who you feel might be particularly well-qualified to evaluate the technical and intellectual merit of the proposal.
• Acknowledgement of no financial conflict: During submission, a pdf form will be provided for the PIs to download, sign, and upload, acknowledging their adherence to the “disallowance of financial conflict” statement noted previously in this announcement.

Technical reports will be due annually and/or at the completion of the project. The awardee may be asked to present highlights of the project at future Andlinger Center meetings or events.

Proposal Submission and Evaluation

Proposal submission will occur through InfoReady per details posted on the Andlinger Center’s webpage for this announcement. Questions regarding the call should be directed to csharpless@princeton.edu.

A faculty selection committee will review the proposals and decisions will be announced in May 2026. The start date may be as soon as August 1, 2026.

Reviewers will be asked to evaluate proposals in four areas:

1. Intellectual merit (the extent to which the research demonstrates potential to advance knowledge in its field, explores creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts, is well-reasoned, and has measurable criteria for success)
2. Alignment with Research Initiative themes or other key areas relevant to sustainable approaches for energy conversion, use, and management
3. Potential for impact on industry knowledge and practice
4. Evidence of substantive engagement with industry partner(s) that can enhance the practical significance of the research and its potential for inspiring future projects

All things being equal, preference will be given to proposals submitted by PIs who either (a) are not currently receiving funding from other Andlinger Center grants or postdoctoral fellows programs or (b) have not received funding in previous rounds of this competition. An exception to this rule is that applications to the Research-tier from researchers previously funded at the Seed-tier will be given full consideration.