Whether you're starting a career in climate, hiring talent, or building on the latest research, Los Angeles's universities are the place to start.
Caltech, University of Southern California, and UC Irvine 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.
Caltech
Resnick Sustainability Institute
Caltech's Resnick Sustainability Institute advances sustainability science across energy, climate, and water, and although primarily a research institute it runs a genuine entrepreneurship track for Caltech innovators. Its Rocket Fund gives non-equity grants to build commercial prototypes and run early pilots, alongside translational ideation grants, entrepreneurship seminars, mentorship, and warm hand-offs to Caltech's technology-transfer office for licensing and new ventures.
Energy Science & Technology program
Caltech's Energy Science and Technology program is an academic and research program within its sustainability initiatives, spanning solar and fuels, storage, and decarbonization science, not a dedicated startup program. Its value to founders is deep technical talent and IP from Caltech labs rather than cohorts or checks. Founders route to the Resnick Rocket Fund and ideation grants and to Caltech's technology-transfer and new-venture resources.
RSI Fellowships: WAVE & Pioneer Postdoctoral
Caltech's Resnick fellowships are research and training fellowships, not startup programs, spanning a summer undergraduate research experience for aspiring sustainability PhDs and a postdoctoral fellowship for independent sustainability research. They involve no equity, company-building, or accelerator element, feeding Caltech's climate research talent pipeline. Founders should instead use the Rocket Fund and technology-transfer pathway.
University of Southern California
USC Viterbi Startup Garage
USC's Viterbi Startup Garage is a university accelerator in Marina del Rey running a one-year residency for early-stage technology startups, now taking no equity and no fees with founders keeping all IP. Founders get around-the-clock coworking space, innovator-in-residence coaching, specialist mentors from the USC network, workshops, a speaker series, and investor introductions, with a national commercialization partnership. It is sector-agnostic, including climate hardware and software.
Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability
USC's Wrigley Institute is an environment and sustainability research and education institute, spanning marine science, ocean carbon, plastics, and aquaculture, and it does not run a founder or startup program. Its funding is academic, through faculty awards, graduate fellowships, and undergraduate internships, rather than equity or acceleration. USC-affiliated founders route to the USC Stevens Center for licensing and the Viterbi Startup Garage.
UC Irvine
Energy Materials & Sustainability research
UC Irvine's Energy Materials and Sustainability research thrust is an academic research capacity in energy materials, storage, and sustainability, not a dedicated early-stage program. Its value to founders is research collaboration, faculty expertise, and graduate talent rather than cohorts or checks. Founders route to CalTestBed, where UC Irvine is a testbed campus, and UCI's applied-innovation commercialization resources.
National Fuel Cell Research Center & Field Lab for Energy Studies
UC Irvine's National Fuel Cell Research Center and its Advanced Power and Energy Program are research centers with significant testbed assets, not a founder accelerator, advancing fuel cell, electrolyzer, and grid technology through research and public-private demonstrations. Founders engage through sponsored research and testbed collaboration, with access to a campus microgrid, hydrogen fueling, and advanced-vehicle assets, rather than a cohort or investment.
University of California, Los Angeles
UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator
The UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator is a university accelerator running cohort programs a few times a year, including an immersive multi-month accelerator with mentor pairings, proof-of-concept grants, and around-the-clock on-campus workspace, plus a summer incubator and a demo-day showcase. Founders get mentorship from the Anderson network, cross-campus technical office hours, mock investor interviews, and go-to-market and legal sessions, and cohorts regularly include clean and sustainable technology.
Technology Development Group
UCLA's Technology Development Group is the campus commercialization and tech-transfer office, not a dedicated accelerator, handling licensing, patents, startup formation, and industry deals. For founders it offers an innovation fund providing non-dilutive proof-of-concept gap funding, an innovation fellows program, and warm introductions to vetted service providers, plus startup licensing support. It is most useful to UCLA researchers spinning out IP.
UC Riverside
Center for Environmental Research & Technology
UC Riverside's Center for Environmental Research and Technology is an environmental, emissions, and energy research center, not a founder program, covering air quality, transportation emissions, alternative fuels, and energy systems. Founders engage via sponsored research and testing rather than incubation, and it anchors regional energy-innovation efforts in the Inland Empire. The correct founder vehicle at UC Riverside is its EPIC and ExCITE incubator.
EPIC proof-of-concept incubator
UC Riverside's EPIC incubator provides no-cost, non-dilutive support to early-stage Inland Southern California founders through one-to-one consulting from entrepreneurs-in-residence, training and workshops, SBIR and STTR proposal help, and investor connections, with its ExCITE incubator adding coworking space and mentoring. Mentors take no equity, and it has administered regional clean-energy innovation funding.