(a) Support under this part may be made to individuals, local non-profit organizations and institutions. State and local agencies, Indian tribes and small businesses.

(b) The aggregate amount of support made available to any participant in the program, including affiliates, shall not exceed $50,000 during any 2-year period. This limitation applies only to support for projects and not to funds received by participants from DOE for other purposes, such as performance of services.

(c) Projects which shall be considered for support are those which carry out the purposes of the program as expressed in § 470.10 and which are within the following categories—

(1) Idea development, i.e., the development of an idea or concept or an investigative finding in areas ranging from development of new concepts of energy sources to the utilization of old procedures or systems for a new application;

(2) Device development, i.e., the systematic use and practical application of investigative findings and theories of a scientific or technical nature toward the production of, or improvements in, useful products to meet specific performance requirements but exclusive of manufacturing and production engineering. The dominant characteristic is that the effort be pointed toward specific energy problem areas to develop and evaluate the feasibility and practicability of proposed solutions and determine their parameters. Device development includes studies, investigations, initial hardware development and ultimately development of hardware, systems, or other means for experimental or operational test; or

(3) Demonstration, i.e., the testing of a system or technique under operation conditions to show that commercial application is technically, economically and environmentally feasible.

(d) Support for each category in paragraph (c) of this section shall not, for a single participant in the program, including affiliates, exceed the following limits for any project—

(1) For idea development, $10,000;

(2) For device development, $50,000; and

(3) For demonstration, $50,000.

(4) A participant may receive under a subsequent program solicitation—

(i) Additional support for a funded project or;

(ii) Initial support for a new project, subject to the support limits set forth in paragraphs (b) and (d) of this section.