NLR and ExxonMobil Launch Accelerate Program for Advanced Materials Innovators

Program Builds Pathways Linking Scientists and Industry To Deliver Market-Ready Solutions

July 16, 2026 | By Brooke Van Zandt | Contact media relations

Share

The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) is collaborating with ExxonMobil to launch Accelerate, a program to help innovators overcome the challenges in scaling and de-risking their technologies on the path to commercialization.

After a competitive application process, selected applicants will receive nondilutive technical assistance worth $250,000 in the form of tailored support from NLR experts and direct engagement with ExxonMobil.

Accelerate’s goal is to build a pipeline of U.S.-based ventures that have promising advanced materials solutions with a credible three- to five-year commercialization plan to address a customer segment of at least $1 billion annually in construction, energy storage, transportation, or electronics and computing sectors.

Accelerate innovators will tap into NLR’s scientific expertise and partnership network inside its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC), which addresses commercialization barriers to turn economically viable advanced energy innovations into competitive, real-world solutions.

“The IEC is built to do exactly this,” said Emily Evans, NLR’s program manager for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. “We have the expertise to identify the most promising innovators in the energy ecosystem, connect them with NLR researchers to advance and de-risk their technologies, and open doors to investors and industry partners through our established networks and convenings.”

The program is inviting U.S. innovators to apply that are developing technologies in advanced materials, specifically:

• Polymers and polymer composites (matrix and filler)
• Hydrocarbons (including phase-change materials and cooling fluids)
• Carbon materials (excluding carbon fibers)
• Ceramics including polymer ceramic composites
• Battery electrolyte materials.

Through Accelerate, ExxonMobil is exploring how advanced materials technologies can address performance challenges. Attractive solutions may offer benefits that include improving speed and cost, fuel efficiency, unit capacity, fire or other environmental hazard resistance, safety, electron mobility, thermal management, life cycle, or end-of-life disposal.

Accelerate innovators will leave the program with technology validation, new industry connections, and a clearer path to a billion-dollar market.

To learn more, visit Accelerate or visit NLR’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. You can also explore NLR partnership opportunities across academia, industry, nonprofits, and national security.