Press Release SPRIND LAUNCHES INNOVATION COMPETITIONS ON "LONG-TERM ENERGY STORAGE" AND "NEW COMPUTING CONCEPTS" Leipzig, 29 July, 2022 The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation will launch two more innovation competitions this year. The aim of the "SPRIND Challenges" is to search for new solutions to major challenges in a technology-open manner. In each of the two SPRIND Challenges, the selected teams will receive several million euros over two to three years to further develop their projects. "The SPRIND Challenges have quickly established themselves as an effective new funding tool among researchers and founders to bridge the 'valley of death' between basic research and market maturity," explains Dr. Jano Costard, Challenge Officer at SPRIND. "By funding different approaches over several years and evaluating their development progress, we can filter out the best solution." The "Long-Duration Energy Storage" Challenge seeks to identify breakthrough technological approaches that enable long-term, efficient and cost-effective energy storage. Such storage is a key element of the energy transition, because a high share of renewable energies in power generation can only be achieved if storage systems also enable days or weeks without significant power generation from wind or solar energy. The goal of the "New Computing Concepts" Challenge is to develop fundamentally new computing concepts in theory and gradually transfer them into practice. The approaches must achieve great leverage in application. Since virtually all computers in use today are based on a concept by John v. Neumann that is about 80 years old, SPRIND is breaking new ground with this Challenge to enable future concepts that realize significantly higher performance and lower energy consumption. Participation in these SPRIND Challenges is open to start-ups, established companies, universities and non-university research institutions from Europe. In addition, partners worldwide can be involved in the projects via collaborations. Special research proposal expertise is not necessary for participation, as SPRIND uses a simple, unbureaucratic and fast procedure to fund the teams. Applications for the two SPRIND Challenges can be submitted in English via an online form starting 25 August (New Computing Concepts) and 30 August (Long-Duration Energy Storage). Application deadlines will be early October and mid-October. For more information on the SPRIND Challenge "Long-Duration Energy Storage", please visit https://www.sprind.org/en/challenges/energystorage/. Information on the SPRIND Challenge "New Computing Concepts" is available at https://www.sprind.org/en/challenges/newcomputing/. About SPRIND Challenges SPRIND Challenges are innovation competitions that aim to generate solutions to the grand societal and technological challenges of our time. They create the vision of a better future and gather the scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs who can make this vision a reality. That's why Challenge teams are funded quickly and without unnecessary bureaucracy, and immediately launch into a multi-stage competition. At the end of each stage, the teams' work is evaluated and only the best remain in the Challenge and receive further financial support to develop their idea. About SPRIND The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovations SPRIND was founded on December 16, 2019, with its registered office in Leipzig. The sole shareholder is the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK). SPRIND fills a gap in the German innovation landscape: it finds new, groundbreaking technologies for the major challenges of our time, while ensuring that the value created by the resulting companies and industries remains in Germany and Europe. SPRIND is financed by funds from the federal budget. SPRIND is managed by Rafael Laguna de la Vera and Berit Dannenberg. CONTACT Christian Egle christian.egle@sprind.org Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation SPRIND Lagerhofstr. 4 04103 Leipzig