Amber Grants

The UPS Store Small Biz Challenge offers entrepreneurs the chance to win a grand prize, including a cash award from the $35,000 prize pool and a spotlight in Inc. magazine. The competition involves several phases: an initial application, a mentoring phase, and a public vote to narrow the field to three finalists, who will pitch their businesses to a panel of judges.

Salem offers a matching grant program to help finance the construction of a new building, or building additions, for commercial, industrial, or mixed-uses in West Salem Urban Renewal Area (URA). Manufacturing equipment and related building improvements may also be eligible.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is issuing this Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) to implement a capital grant program to support reproductive health care facilities in Illinois that are experiencing increased demand for their services. Following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022, Illinois clinics have seen an influx of out-of-state patients, resulting in limited capacity and stress to reproductive health care service providers. To address the need to maintain and expand access to care, the Illinois Reproductive Health Facilities Capital Grant Program will help abortion providers in Illinois address their needs for capital investment. Grant funds may be used to invest in facility construction or durable equipment.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) provides a continuing opportunity for the rapid support of early-stage applied research to explore innovative new concepts with the potential for transformational and disruptive changes in energy technology. Spurring Projects to Advance Energy Research and Knowledge Swiftly (SPARKS) awards are intended to be flexible and may take the form of analyses or exploratory research that provides the agency with useful information for the subsequent development of focused technology programs. SPARKS awards may also support proof-of-concept research to develop a unique technology concept, either in an area not currently supported by the agency or as a potential enhancement to an ongoing focused technology program. Applications must propose concepts that are not covered by open ARPA-E focused FOAs and that do not represent incremental improvements over existing technology. SPARKS awards are defined as single-phase efforts of durations of 18 months or less with a total project cost of $500,000 or less and will be issued through Grants. ARPA-E expects to make approximately $10 million per fiscal year available for new awards, subject to the availability of appropriated funds. This announcement is purposely broad in scope to encourage the submission of the most innovative ideas in energy technology to support transformative energy R&D that complements ARPA-E’s primary mechanism, which is through the solicitation of research projects in focused technology programs.ARPA-E’s focused programs target specific areas of technology that the agency has identified through extensive interaction with the appropriate external stakeholders. The focused programs have significant potential impact on one or more of the statutory goals described in Section I.A of the FOA. Awards made in response to the solicitation for focused programs support the aggressive technical targets established in that solicitation. Taken in total, ARPA-E’s focused programs cover a broad swath of energy technologies and applications.

The Building Improvement Grant is an annual, competitive, reimbursable grant available for businesses in the downtown and East Main Street qualifying area to make improvements to the front of their buildings. Based on annual appropriation from City Council, the grant program is announced in July of each year with applications due in September. Applications are reviewed and scored with grantees announced in late September of each year. There are two categories of improvements: façade or landscaping, offering up to $5,000 in funding.