The Launch Alaska team is excited to continue accelerating the clean energy transition with the help of a five-year, $5 million grant from the Office of Naval Research. 

This renewed financial support builds on our successful existing partnership: The latest funding supports Launch Alaska’s Tech Deployment Track, which catalyzes tech commercialization and adoption, spurring innovation projects that create solutions to pressing infrastructure challenges around the state. Together, these efforts draw private investment and create jobs for Alaskans while optimizing our systems of energy, industry, and transportation. 

“We’re endlessly effective when we collaborate,” said Isaac Vanderburg, Launch Alaska CEO. “Our partner networks and innovation initiatives help us expand the impact of every dollar awarded by ONR, and we’re so grateful for the opportunity to continue building a brighter and cleaner economic future for Alaska”  

To date, our organization has partnered with more than 100 Alaska businesses and institutions to support more than 75 climate tech startups through the eight-month Tech Deployment Track program, planting the seeds for economic growth via dozens of projects designed to strengthen Alaska communities. Successful Tech Deployment Track graduates become part of the Launch Alaska Portfolio: Combined, our portfolio deployment and innovation projects are projected to generate a total economic impact of more than $140 million. And we’re just getting started.

The new five-year ONR award strengthens Launch Alaska’s ability to connect these emerging technologies, private companies, and projects devoted to the public good. 

“This latest round of ONR funding builds on the amazing momentum of the last five years,” said Mary Miner, president of the Launch Alaska Board of Directors and vice president of community development at McKinley Alaska Growth Capital. “Launch Alaska attracts immediate and long-term investments in Alaska’s future, and federal support enables us to leverage increased private investment at every stage of that work.”

To learn more about Launch Alaska and our work, click here.