The competition is only open to legally formed entities including for-profits, nonprofits, academic institutions, and non-federal government entities such as states, counties, tribes, and municipalities. Competitors are subject to the following requirements:
● If a lead competitor is a private entity, it must be incorporated in and maintain a primary9 place of business in the United States.
● If the lead competitor is an academic institution, it must be based in the United States.
● DOE employees, employees of sponsoring organizations, members of their immediate families (e.g., spouses, children, siblings, or parents), and persons living in the same household as such persons, whether or not related, are not eligible to participate in the prize.
● Individuals who worked at DOE (federal employees or support service contractors) within six months prior to the submission deadline of any contest are not eligible to participate in any prize contests in this program.
● Federal entities and federal employees are not eligible to participate in any portion of the prize.
● DOE national laboratory and other federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) employees cannot compete in the prize.
● Individuals are not eligible to compete on their own. Because of the scope of this prize, only legally formed entities may compete in this prize.
● Entities publicly banned from doing business with the U.S. government such as entities and individuals debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or ineligible for participating in federal programs are not eligible to compete.
● Entities identified as a restricted party on one or more screening lists of the Departments of Commerce, State, and Treasury are not eligible to compete. See Consolidated Screening List.
● This prize competition is expected to positively impact U.S. economic competitiveness. Participation in a foreign government talent recruitment program10 as defined in DOE Order 486.1 could conflict with this objective by resulting in unauthorized transfer of scientific and technical information to foreign government entities. Therefore, individuals participating in foreign government talent recruitment programs of foreign countries of risk are not eligible to compete. Further, teams that include individuals participating in foreign government talent recruitment programs of foreign countries of risk11 are not eligible to compete.
It is not the intent of this prize to fund early-stage development, design, or testing of new floating wind platform concepts. Therefore, only platform designs that have reached an advanced level of technical readiness are of interest, as detailed in the evaluation criteria.
