Case Study: U.S. Department of Energy achieves the fastest funding mechanism and 90% lower management costs with IdeaScale

Department of Energy, SunShot Ini5a5ve Crea5ng the Fastest Funding Solu5on in the Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative created SunShot Catalyst to turn crowdsourced solar ideas into real, fundable solutions. Faced with the challenge of rapidly sourcing, vetting and funding practical innovations (including attracting nontraditional stakeholders) within government constraints, the team needed a fast, low‑cost way to surface the biggest market problems and match them with teams able to build prototypes.

Using the IdeaScale platform, SunShot ran a two‑phase moderated campaign—open ideation followed by a business‑pitch round with video submissions, voting and reviewer assessments—and offered up to $25K per project. The program funded 20 teams, launched in under six months and became the DOE’s fastest funding mechanism (funding decisions in under six weeks), while driving strong engagement (5,340 verified members, 137 problem statements, 1,353 votes, 38 video pitches), broad media reach and an estimated ~90% reduction in community management costs.

U.S. Department of Energy

Michael Contreras

AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow