How to Engage

Overview

The EBI drives science-based innovation, offering 18 years of experience. Partners can engage by supporting research, identifying growth opportunities, and evaluating innovations with practical
go-to-market strategies. Collaboration with EBI ensures a forward-thinking approach as energy evolves.

Roadmap to partnership

The EBI has developed a unique operational model to bridge different styles of communication and governance between industry and academia. Our validated model involves building research portfolios with the industrial sponsors while ensuring program integrity, alignment, and deliverability throughout its entire life cycle.

Research Excellence

01.

Business
Scoping

The EBI meets with potential sponsor to discuss company’s development objectives, research interests and strategic plan under an NDA.

02.

Program
Framing

The EBI organizes a workshop with a sponsor and key faculty with whom their research intersects. Promising ideas are broken down into research ready area(s) for funding.

03.

Research
Planning

A Technical Scientific Committee (TSC) is created between the EBI and industrial sponsor to build and manage the research program.

04.

Research
Portfolio

The TSC selects project(s) to be funded through a call for proposal to attract the best fit researchers across the 3 campuses.

05.

Working
Group

TSC selects key individual contributors from the sponsor’s side to syndicate knowledge and facilitate tech transfer through active collaboration. Projects can be renewed or pivot to accommodate sponsors needs.

What sets us apart?

The EBI manages the research programs for our industrial sponsors through many initiatives.

Administrative Support

Dedicated team to maintain program integrity including financial oversight, project onboarding and Annual Project Progress and Final Reports.

Project Management

Identifying a Technical Steering Committee (TSC) between EBI and Sponsors that reviews project selection and manages logistics and oversight.

Research Liaison

Forming working groups between Researchers and Sponsors to syndicate knowledge and facilitate collaborations as projects kick off.

Market Growth Analysis

Consulting-oriented practicum design to identify new technologies/strategies that can spark disruptive business opportunities.

Biannual Retreat

To help Sponsors with knowledge sharing and networking. Retreats include panel discussions, presentations, keynote speakers and annual programmatic reports.

Thematic Workshops

Targeted to help Sponsors with career development and knowledge building. Topics include environmental impact, supply chain analysis, bioeconomy, I&E ecosystem.

Executive Engagement

Opportunities for Sponsors Executive Leadership to engage with Berkeley’s Senior Leadership during site visits and facility tours.

High Risk/
High Reward Progam

A Special program that offers extra funding for a cross-disciplinary project that has potential to be disruptive. TSC manages the project selection & review.

Fall Reviews &
Spring Site Visits

Reviews offers opportunity for PIs and TSC to assess project status, direction, financials, and to visit research labs and meet with all research project team.

FAQs

For any other questions that we may not have answered, please email us and we’ll get back to you shortly.

Get in touch

Complete the contact information form and tell us more about your needs and goals. We will then discuss next steps and best options. The EBI offers flexibility for sponsors with multiple entry points and exit options at each stage gate. We pride ourselves on building successful partnerships with sponsors who are invested in sustainability and solving complex global energy challenges.

The EBI embraces the opportunity to connect industry sponsors with exceptional researchers across three institutions through an efficient Request for Proposals (RFP) process. This process aims to outline the specific needs of the industrial sponsor based on their objectives and timeframe of a research topic. RFP is an efficient mechanism assuring a transparent and competitive process for selecting the most suitable researchers while maintaining alignment throughout the research life cycle.

Yes, sponsors can choose to access to all three institutions or one through a single master agreement and a collaborative RFP process.

Yes, each sponsor is offered a fire-walled research plan with IP preferential access.

Technology transfer is managed by licensing patented intellectual property to the sponsor, as well as the IP created by the investigator.

One contract to access three institutions including 7,500 faculty, postdocs and over 100k students
18-year proven track record of success
Dedicated team to maintain research program integrity
Cutting-edge facilities across the three campus to test interdisciplinary ideas
Asset light innovation strategy
Fire-walled research plan with IP preferential access

There are different ways to engage with EBI, and costs will vary depending on the level of sponsorship and benefits provided. The EBI team is excited to work with you to discover the best path forward.

We advise a minimal three-year term to ensure continuity for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, however, customization is possible depending on the specific needs of the sponsor.

Do you want to transform a novel idea or determine its potential? By identifying new technologies or strategies that will expand existing markets and/or launch new growth opportunities, the EBI offers early engagement through a consulting-oriented practicum that integrates R&D, engineering, marketing and business into one team (sponsoring company & EBI).

This program focuses on translating promising concepts into commercial technologies and go-to-market strategies by leveraging UC Berkeley’s world-class innovation & acceleration ecosystem towards supporting commercialization. EBI works with industrial programs to design the best approach to advance an existing proof of concept towards product development. By focusing on a project’s viability before heavily investing resources into one solution or another, the iPOC demonstrates if the idea or concept will meet the sponsor’s customer and business requirements.