Explore the Data
The Energy Innovation Project consolidates and tracks federal data on agency workforce, federal funding, and project performance across the energy innovation pipeline. A transparent, centralized database enables clear metrics for measuring outcomes and end-to-end innovation.
Explore staffing, spending, and project data using interactive filters across key categories. Tables can be downloaded in full or based on the current filtered view.
Last Data Update: April 2026
Next Update: May 2026 (Estimated)
Explore key trends in staffing, spending, and project data through charts. Charts and underlying data sets can be downloaded for further use.
Announced and awarded funding from DOE’s science and energy innovation offices more than doubled in Q1 2026
2025 Q1 – 2026 Q1 spending across DOE’s science and energy innovation offices
Note: The EFI Foundation’s analysis focuses exclusively on DOE’s science and energy innovation offices, unless noted otherwise. See our for a full list of offices tracked. “Obligated” data are from USASpending; “Awarded” data are from DOE press releases; “Announced” data are from grants.gov. All data are as of April 3, 2026.
The White Requested a slight increase in overall staff across DOE’s science and energy innovation offices in FY27
FTE levels at DOE’s science and energy innovation offices, FY25 – FY27
FY25 numbers are confirmed; FY26 numbers are estimates; FY27 numbers are requested staff
Note: The EFI Foundation’s analysis focuses exclusively on DOE’s science and energy innovation offices, unless noted otherwise. See our methodology for a full list of offices tracked. “FTE” is used throughout to mean full-time equivalents for federal employees, as measured by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Data are from OMB’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for fiscal year 2027.
The White House Requested increases for staff at most priority offices
FTE levels at select DOE offices, FY25 – FY27
FY25 numbers are confirmed; FY26 numbers are estimates; FY27 numbers are requested staff
Note: “FTE” is used throughout to mean full-time equivalents for federal employees, as measured by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Data are from OMB’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for fiscal year 2027. “EDF” is used for LPO accounts; “HGEO” is used for both FE and HGEO accounts.
DOE Canceled Far More Projects Than It Supported in 2025
In 2025, DOE cancelled 345 awards totaling $11.08 billion and selected grantees for 30 awards totaling $3.58 billion in 2025. Of the projects awarded, nuclear emerged as a key priority with modest funding support for critical minerals, storage, geothermal, and grid infrastructure.
2025 funding activities in billions of dollars, DOE science and energy innovation offices
Notes: Data are from USAspending.gov and DOE’s press releases. Funding Opportunity Announcements issued before January 20, 2025 but amended after are included in the planned funding numbers, as are Notices of Intent. Solicitations without funding, such as Requests for Information and the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, were excluded from this figure. Cancellations are only included if publicly confirmed by DOE or award recipient. DOE alluded to a total of $30 billion in loan guarantee cancellations on January 22, 2026 without providing further details. Cancellations initiated by recipients are not included in this data. Data reflect DOE’s funding activities from January 20, 2025, to January 20, 2026.
DOE Awarded $3.58 in Funds and Closed Over $4 Billion in Loans in 2025
DOE’s closed loans for 2025 will support grid infrastructure, coal, and nuclear energy. The awards for which it selected grantees concentrated heavily on nuclear, with limited support for storage, critical minerals, microgrids, and geothermal.
What Happens When Funds are Deobligated
In 2025, the DOE canceled 345 awards totaling more than $11 billion, including $8.8 billion in obligated funding. The process of deobligating funds goes through a series of budgetary and legal rules depending on statutory purpose and expiration dates. The chart below explains how funds move through federal accounts and outlines the guardrails that determine whether or how they can be reused.
Source: EFI Foundation
Over 70% of the Cancelled Award Funding Does Not Expire
In 2025, DOE canceled 345 awards totaling $11.08 billion, $8.8 billion of which was already contractually obligated to projects. Over 70% of that obligated funding carries no expiration date, meaning those dollars will remain at DOE until expended or Congress acts to reprogram them.
Canceled award funding (in billions of dollars)
Note: These data reflect all DOE award cancellations since January 20, 2025, totaling $11.08 billion. EFIF used USAspending.gov’s interface to identify the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) each canceled award was issued under. The FOAs specify the statute that appropriated funding for the award program, and the statutes specify the expiration date, or lack thereof, for the appropriations. Award amount data are from a mix of DOE and recipient press releases and media coverage.
Congress Rejected Major Program Cuts and Project Terminations
DOE received $14.63 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2026 Congressional appropriations bill passed in January, a 3% reduction from FY 2025 levels and a 43% increase from the White House proposal. The bill also includes a guardrail against future award terminations, directing that DOE “shall not terminate a federal award … on the basis that the federal award no longer effectuates program goals or agency priorities”
Difference between White House FY2026 budget request and Congress-passed FY26 Energy and Water Bill
Note: Data are from OMB’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for Fiscal year 2026 and H.R.6938 – Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026.
Staff Cuts in 2025 Mark the Largest in Recent History
DOE’s unprecedented workforce cuts may have played a role in the department’s limited spending last year.
Proposed FY26 staff reductions compared to FY24 levels
Note: 2015-2024 data from FedScope; 2025 data from DOE’s September 2025 Lapse Plan.
The White House Proposed Significant Staff Cuts to DOE’s Science and Energy Innovation Offices for Fiscal Year 2026
If implemented, those cuts would further reduce DOE’s ability to utilize its budgetary resources effectively.
Historical changes in DOE staffing levels
Note: Data are from the Office of Management and Budget’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for fiscal year 2026. “FTE” is used throughout to mean full-time equivalents for federal employees, as measured by OMB.
In 2025 DOE Spent a Small Fraction of Its Available Funding
Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) budget has grown rapidly, hitting record levels after 2022. Despite having large amount of available capital, spending has failed to keep pace, leaving billions of dollars idle.
Note: The EFI Foundation’s analysis focuses exclusively on DOE’s science and energy innovation offices, unless noted otherwise. See our methodology for a full list of offices tracked. “Total budgetary resources” include DOE’s full obligational authority in a given fiscal year, unless noted otherwise, including appropriations, unobligated carryover balances, and authority from offsetting collections. Off-budget financing accounts are excluded. Data are from the yearly Office of Management and Budget’s Technical Supplement to the Presidential Budget Request (2017-2025) and USAspending.gov.
DOE Has Nearly $80 Billion to Spend on Innovation
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) rescinded only $1.8 billion of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funds available for grantmaking in innovation offices. Budget increases from fiscal year 2022 to 2025 mostly come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; these funds have no expiration date and are available until expended.
Historical net changes in DOE staffing levels
Note: The EFI Foundation’s analysis focuses exclusively on DOE’s science and energy innovation offices, unless noted otherwise. See our methodology for a full list of offices tracked. “Total budgetary resources” include DOE’s full obligational authority in a given fiscal year, unless noted otherwise, including appropriations, unobligated carryover balances, and authority from offsetting collections. Off-budget financing accounts are excluded. Data are from the Office of Management and Budget’s Technical Supplement (2017-2026).
Staff Cuts Save Little While Limiting DOE’s Ability To Meet Its Objectives
Federal Data to Drive Innovation
The Energy Innovation Project aggregates federal data into a centralized database designed to equip policymakers with credible, decision-useful information.
Interested in Providing Feedback?
This is a living database. We welcome questions, suggestions, and corrections from users. For inquiries, suggestions, or to report data issues, please contact the research team
Methodology
This database tracks Department of Energy awards, spending, and workforce across three main datasets. All data cover fiscal year 2017 through the present. Variables sourced from USAspending.gov were last updated April 3, 2026. Variables derived from presidential budget requests (requested budget and requested staff) are updated episodically as new budget documents are released, with the most recent as of April 3, 2026.
This is a living database. We welcome questions, suggestions, and corrections from users. For inquiries, suggestions, or to report data issues, please contact the research team.
A comprehensive data dictionary is available for download below, providing detailed definitions and sources for each variable across all three datasets.
Projects Dataset
The Projects data set includes approximately 17,000 DOE-issued awards with periods of performance beginning in FY2017 or later. All data are sourced from USASpending.gov, the Treasury Department’s official federal spending transparency portal,
except for cancellations data (see “award status” below). The data set encompasses grants, loans, and other financial assistance transactions issued by DOE.
Data Collection and Updates
We download award data from USAspending.gov’s Custom Award Download tool, extracting comprehensive information on each award, such as:
• Obligation and outlay amounts.
• Performance period start and end dates.
• Primary place of performance.
• Award descriptions and program activities.
• Funding office designation.
To track changes over time, we maintain a “previously obligated” column that reflects obligation values from our initial November 2025 data download. The main obligations column contains the most current figure from our most recent data refresh.
Technology and Sector Categorization
Awards are categorized by technology type and end-use sector based on keyword analysis of three fields: award description, program activities, and funding office. We recognize that many awards incorporate multiple technologies or serve multiple end-use sectors. In cases where awards could fit multiple categories, we assign them based on the field with the highest number of relevant keyword matches. Awards that do not match any keywords are categorized manually. These classifications are not authoritative and are intended as a useful reference.
Award Status
The status column indicates whether an award has been canceled. This field reflects only publicly confirmed cancellations announced by DOE, a congressional committee, or the recipient. Recipient-initiated terminations and withdrawals are excluded.
Funding Office and Federal Accounts
The funding office designation indicates which DOE office’s budget the award draws from, while the federal account number identifies the specific Treasury account used to fund the award. See the “federal account symbols” section below for more information.
Spending & People Datasets
The Spending and People data sets provide office-level financial and workforce metrics for DOE’s science and energy innovation offices. Drawing on public federal data, these data sets bring together budget,
workforce, and spending information to help users understand how resources are allocated and managed across DOE offices.
Data Sources
The primary data source for both data sets is USAspending.gov, specifically Form A and Form B. Two additional sources supply specific fields:
• The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) annual technical supplement to the president’s budget request supplies the “requested budget” and “requested staff” fields.
• Grants.gov supplies the “funding available” field, which reflects estimated program funding across DOE funding opportunity announcements by office and fiscal year.
Key variables in these data sets include:
• Total budgetary resources, which include new appropriations, unobligated carryover balances, and authority from offsetting collections.
• Full-time equivalent (FTE) staffing levels.
• Spending on advisory and assistance services.
• Other office-level financial and workforce metrics.
Requested Budget and Requested Staff
These variables reflect what the administration asked Congress for in the next fiscal year’s budget but are stored in the row for the year the request was published. For example, the FY2027 presidential budget request—released during FY2026—appears in the FY2026 row. This lets you compare, within a single row, what an office actually received versus what the administration subsequently requested.
Federal Account Symbols
These data sets are organized by federal account symbols, which correspond to Treasury accounts. Congress appropriates funding to Treasury accounts, which OMB then apportions to agencies. Treasury accounts often, but do not always, map directly to individual offices. Some accounts exist for multiple offices to spend from, such as the Energy Security and Infrastructure Modernization Fund. Most accounts are dedicated to a single office.
Tracking Implementation
Examine the impact of energy innovation policy across three key categories.
Spending
Federal investments in innovation
Projects
Progress on technology deployment
People
Federal workforce capacity to deliver innovation