Developing a great idea into a technology that impacts the market and the world is difficult. Doing so with an energy- or science-based technology can seem nearly impossible. Complex technical challenges, long development cycles, expensive lab equipment, and impatient investors create high hurdles for even the most determined innovators to overcome.

It leaves innovators feeling isolated. But they don’t have to be.

Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) is a new two-year program for innovators focused on energy and science technologies. Through an annual call, four to six teams will be selected to join CRI.

The goal of CRI is to give the nation’s brightest energy and science innovators the best chance at success. The future depends on it.

By 2050, the world’s population will grow by 33 percent, much of it an emerging middle class that will contribute to energy demand that is five times greater than that of today. At the same time, leading scientists say we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent. The only way to accomplish both is to develop revolutionary new technologies.

These technologies will create a more sustainable future and forever change the lives of the nearly 1.4 billion people who currently have no access to power and the billions more with unreliable power.

The opportunities are immense. And with CRI, those opportunities are now within reach.