Whether you're starting a career in climate, hiring talent, or building on the latest research, Chicago's universities are the place to start.
Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois anchor the region's climate research and feed talent into the industries doing the work. Read on for a starter guide to the major programs and centers.
Northwestern University
Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy
The Trienens Institute is Northwestern's university-wide research hub for energy and sustainability, based in Evanston and known until recently as ISEN. It is a research and education institute rather than an accelerator, funding faculty and student work through semiannual seed grants and convening researchers across engineering, chemistry, economics, and law, with the Ubben Program for Climate and Carbon Science as its flagship. Founders reach the venture side of the building through NUvention: Energy and Sustainability, the venture-creation course it runs with the Farley Center.
NUvention: Energy and Sustainability
NUvention: Energy and Sustainability is Northwestern's experiential venture-creation course for energy and climate, taught out of the Farley Center with the Trienens Institute. Interdisciplinary teams of engineering, business, law, and science students spend a term taking a real technology from problem statement to a tested business model, coached by practitioners and investors rather than assessed on theory. It takes no equity, and it is a course rather than a funded accelerator, so capital comes later.
University of Chicago
Polsky Deep Tech Ventures
Polsky Deep Tech Ventures is the University of Chicago's umbrella for turning hard science into companies, run out of the Polsky Center in Hyde Park. It pairs technology licensing and venture formation with a stack of sector accelerators, and it draws on an unusual research catchment covering the university, Argonne National Laboratory, and Fermilab. Founders enter through one of its named programs rather than the umbrella itself.
Polsky Center: Resurgence
Resurgence is the cleantech accelerator inside Polsky Deep Tech Ventures, built with the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and supported by Invenergy. It works with early clean-energy teams on the particular difficulty of commercializing materials and energy science, moving from customer discovery through investor readiness with mentors drawn from the university, the national laboratories, and the region's energy operators.
Polsky Center: Compass
Compass is Polsky's deep-tech accelerator for the earliest stage, aimed at teams still shaping a technology into a venture rather than scaling one. It provides structured curriculum, mentorship, and a route into the wider Deep Tech Ventures network of accelerators, investors, and licensing support.
Polsky Center: Transform
Transform is Polsky's data science and artificial intelligence accelerator, and it is not climate-dedicated, though climate and environment companies are explicitly eligible. Selected teams receive funding, curriculum, and mentorship modelled on Polsky's quantum accelerator, plus introductions to investors working in applied AI. Climate founders whose wedge is software and data fit better here than hardware founders, who should look at Resurgence.
George Shultz Innovation Fund
The George Shultz Innovation Fund is Polsky's co-investment vehicle for ventures emerging from the University of Chicago, Argonne, Fermilab, and the Marine Biological Laboratory. Teams pitch for a first institutional cheque alongside diligence support from students and staff, and the fund exists to move technology out of the laboratory rather than to lead priced rounds.
University of Illinois
Discovery Partners Institute
Discovery Partners Institute is the University of Illinois system's applied research and business-building institute in the Loop, led by the Grainger College of Engineering. Its current mandate centers on artificial intelligence, quantum, and next-generation computing rather than climate, so it is not a climate startup program, although it has anchored federally funded work on clean energy and transportation and remains a route into Illinois research talent. Climate founders should treat it as a talent and research-partnership channel and look to mHUB or the Polsky Center for programming.
University of Illinois
Technology Innovation Lab
The Technology Innovation Lab is UIC's incubator in the Illinois Medical District, and unusually for a university facility it is open to founders with no UIC affiliation alongside faculty, students, and staff. It offers wet and dry laboratory bench space as well as co-working, which matters for water, materials, and environmental sensing companies that need a sink and a fume hood rather than a desk.
Spark Innovation Hub
Spark is UIC's entrepreneurship pathway, running a venture challenge, a fellowship placed at 1871, and federally supported customer discovery training, with licensing handled by the Office of Technology Management. UIC is also a named partner in the region's federally funded water innovation engine, leading workforce development and research on contaminant removal, so climate founders find both talent and research partners here. Programming is primarily for UIC affiliates.
Illinois Institute of Technology
Ed Kaplan Family Institute Startup Studio
The Kaplan Institute is Illinois Tech's innovation building on the South Side, and its Startup Studio is the founder-facing part, offering mentorship, project funding, and technology competitions. Programming is largely for students and faculty rather than the open founder community, and the university's energy strength sits next door in its sustainable energy and electricity research centers.
Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research
WISER is Illinois Tech's sustainable energy research institute, and alongside the Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation it gives the university real depth in power systems, grid modernization, and energy efficiency. Both are research and industry collaboration vehicles with faculty-only funding calls, so neither is a place a founder applies. Companies that want to work with this research should approach the Kaplan Institute or the university's technology transfer office.
Loyola University Chicago
Abrams Sustainable Business Challenge
The Abrams Sustainable Business Challenge is a year-long green venture building competition run jointly by Loyola's Baumhart Center and its School of Environmental Sustainability, taking teams from an idea through to a funded pitch. Eligibility is restricted to Loyola students and recent alumni, so it is not open to the wider founder community, and Loyola's value to everyone else is its sustainability faculty and graduates.