Whether you're starting a career in climate, hiring talent, or building on the latest research, San Francisco's universities are the place to start.
Stanford, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 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.
Stanford
StartX
StartX is a nonprofit accelerator and lifelong founder community for Stanford-affiliated founders, taking no equity and charging no fees, with three cohorts a year across a full-time accelerator and a student fellowship. Founders get assigned mentors, one-to-one staff support, a heavy events calendar, drop-in office space, a large perks package, and a durable network used for hiring and early customers. It is industry and stage agnostic, and a separate opt-in fund co-invests only after a company raises from professional investors.
Doerr School of Sustainability
Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability is a university school, not a dedicated founder program, and the academic hub for its climate and sustainability research. Founders should target its Sustainability Accelerator, which funds and helps commercialize solutions, and Stanford's broader entrepreneurship arms like StartX. Its direct value is research, talent, and translational funding rather than a cohort.
Earth Systems Program
Stanford's Earth Systems Program is an interdisciplinary Earth and environmental sciences degree, not a startup program, offering no cohort, grants, or investment. Its value to founders is talent and research rather than acceleration. Founders route to StartX and the Doerr School Sustainability Accelerator to commercialize.
Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment & Resources
Stanford's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources is a graduate academic program in the Doerr School, not a startup accelerator. Its value to founders is talent and research rather than programming or capital. Students wanting to commercialize route to StartX and the Doerr School Sustainability Accelerator.
TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy
Stanford's TomKat Center is a sustainable-energy research center, not an accelerator, but it runs founder-relevant translational funding, including faculty seed grants and an innovation-transfer program that funds Stanford teams to build prototypes, do market research, and refine business plans with a faculty mentor. Its value is bridging lab research toward a fundable venture. Founders seeking a full cohort pair it with StartX.
UC Berkeley
CITRIS Foundry
CITRIS Foundry is the University of California's deep-tech incubator for founders from its member campuses, requiring a UC tie and at least two founders, and explicitly no-cost and no-equity. Value comes from a roughly six-month tailored program of intensive early coaching and milestone work, mentorship, and access to UC labs, fablabs, and testbeds plus on-campus workspace. Its focus is deep tech including sustainability, resilience, and energy.
Berkeley SkyDeck
Berkeley SkyDeck is UC Berkeley's flagship accelerator, running a roughly six-month, mostly in-person program in downtown Berkeley that ends in a Demo Day before many investors. Its cohort track is dilutive, with the SkyDeck Fund investing for a modest equity stake and uniquely sharing half its profits with the university, while a separate Pad-13 track gives earlier teams partial resources without a guaranteed check. It is industry-agnostic with deep-tech tracks.
Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory
Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory is an academic research lab in the Energy and Resources Group, not a startup program, producing energy-systems and energy-access research and training researchers. It offers no cohort, grants, or investment. Founders route to CITRIS Foundry, SkyDeck, Cyclotron Road and Activate, and state programs like CalSEED and CalTestBed.
Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute
The Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute coordinates energy and climate research across UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab, not a dedicated founder program. Its value to founders is research, talent, and convening rather than a cohort or capital. Founders route to CITRIS Foundry and SkyDeck, Cyclotron Road and Activate, and state CalSEED and CalTestBed programs.
Energy Institute at Haas
The Energy Institute at Haas is a business-school research center focused on energy economics and policy, not a startup accelerator, offering research, seminars, and analysis rather than programming or capital. Founders route to SkyDeck and CITRIS Foundry for acceleration. Its value is economic and policy insight.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Cyclotron Road: Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship
Cyclotron Road at Berkeley Lab is the keystone lab-embedded entrepreneurship program, run with the nonprofit Activate, supporting scientist-founders through a two-year fellowship to move hard-science ideas from concept to first product. Fellows receive a living stipend, health coverage, relocation support, research funding at the lab, and access to world-class facilities, with no equity taken and IP retained, delivered through a weekly curriculum, mentorship, and a peer community. Bay Area relocation is required.
Energy Technologies & Energy Sciences Areas
Berkeley Lab's Energy Technologies and Energy Sciences Areas are national-laboratory research divisions, not a startup program, conducting energy R&D and operating user facilities. Founders access them through other mechanisms, chiefly Cyclotron Road and Activate for an embedded fellowship, CalTestBed for paid facility access, and lab licensing. Their value is science and facilities, not cohorts or capital.
Earth & Environmental Sciences Area
Berkeley Lab's Earth and Environmental Sciences Area is a research division focused on subsurface, climate, and water systems, not a founder program. Its outputs are science and facilities rather than cohorts or capital. Founders route to Cyclotron Road and Activate for embedded support, CalTestBed for facility access, and lab tech-transfer for licensing.
Joint BioEnergy Institute
The Joint BioEnergy Institute at Berkeley Lab is a federal bioenergy research center in synthetic biology for biofuels and bioproducts, not a startup accelerator, whose IP and expertise seed companies without a founder cohort. Bio-based climate founders route to SOSV, Cyclotron Road and Activate, and lab licensing, and can target CalSEED. Its value is science and licensable IP.
UC Davis
Energy and Efficiency Institute
UC Davis's Energy and Efficiency Institute coordinates energy-efficiency and clean-energy research, not a dedicated early-stage founder program, offering research, testbeds, and talent. Founders route to CITRIS Foundry, which is open to UC Davis teams, state CalSEED and CalTestBed programs, and Cleantech Open West. Its value is applied research and validation capability.
Energy and Efficiency Institute Research Centers
UC Davis's EEI research centers, spanning lighting, cooling efficiency, and transportation, are specialized academic centers offering testing, demonstration, and applied research rather than cohorts or capital. Several serve as testbeds founders can access through CalTestBed, alongside CITRIS Foundry and Cleantech Open West. Their value is validation and demonstration capability.
Santa Clara University
Miller Center: Global Social Benefit Institute
Santa Clara's Miller Center runs one of the world's largest accelerators for social enterprises, focused on climate resilience and women's economic power, pairing each venture with Silicon Valley executive mentors over a roughly six-month cohort delivered online with an in-residence component, free and without equity. It refines impact and business models and investment readiness, and its impact fund provides debt financing to top graduates.
Roelandts Grant Program
The Roelandts Grant Program at Santa Clara's Miller Center provides modest non-dilutive grants to early-stage social entrepreneurs, often student or alumni ventures, plus university mentorship, rather than a full cohort accelerator. Its value is first non-dilutive dollars for very early social and climate founders. Those ready for structured acceleration pair it with the Miller Center accelerator.