To do this, the scientists, engineers, business experts, and teams behind groundbreaking innovations need investment and support to ensure their technologies have the resources to get adopted quickly. As part of our end-to-end approach to accelerating innovation, BE has established the Breakthrough Energy Fellows (BE Fellows) program to support the world’s best and brightest innovators as they develop technologies to help the world get to a clean energy future.

The Fellows program is designed to tackle early-stage barriers to climate technology innovation, accelerating discovery and increasing the number of projects and companies working toward commercialization. By providing innovators with research funding and hands-on support, our program ensures projects have the resources and community they need to advance to the next stages of development.

Fellows Program at a Glance

Hailing from around the world, BE Fellows are focused on technologies that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases, at scale, by at least 500 million tons per year. Technologies supported to date include high-impact areas such as hydrogen, electrofuels, steel, cement, food and agriculture, energy storage, nuclear fusion, carbon dioxide capture, storage and sequestration.

The Breakthrough Energy Fellows program has three pathways, defined as follows:

• Innovator Fellows are world-leading scientists and engineers who enter the program with a critical climate technology to commercialize.
• Business Fellows are experienced professionals with tech commercialization skills who support the Innovator Fellows in accelerating their path to market.
• Explorers receive funding for earlier stage, higher technical risk endeavors. These projects are typically led by scientists at university labs or research entities.

How are Fellows Selected?

Applicants can apply to the program directly through an open call on our website. Additionally, candidates may be identified and nominated to apply through a robust ecosystem of research institutions, incubators, and universities. Applications go through a rigorous vetting and selection process led by the Breakthrough Energy team and external experts. This process includes a thorough technology assessment, deep dive interviews, and technical milestone identification.