Let us help you get started with answers to some of your most frequently asked questions.

We’re building a vibrant digital ecosystem that powers a community of scientists, entrepreneurs, and creative minds who help solve some of the world’s biggest energy challenges.

Onward is a collaborative endeavor created by Shell that brings together internal and external expertise, resources, and talent to create fresh ideas for a clean, sustainable energy future. Meet our team and the board that guides us.

The enormous challenges of our energy future will only be solved through unfettered interdisciplinary thinking–a “yes, and” attitude toward innovation and development. Onward is a single, continually evolving platform with tools and data to facilitate collaboration.

Onward has attracted scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and energy enthusiasts from all over the world. Not just energy industry insiders. The Onward community also includes data scientists, AI developers, students, retirees, creatives, and funders looking for the next big thing.

There’s no secret password or handshake. Just register.

You’re not just joining a growing community of smart, like-minded people. Every member has access to the latest projects, challenges, bounties, and learning material so you can contribute at a pace that’s right for you. And there’s much more in store for 2024!

It’s where you’ll connect with our global community. And it’s a unified place to access projects, challenges, bounties, and learning material.

In these crowdsourced competitions, individuals and teams submit data science solutions to energy industry problems. 

Use your skills and creativity to solve some tough puzzles. Level-up your knowledge, access interesting datasets, work on real-world applications, win prize money — or possibly all of the above! 

Browse live challenges, register to join, and keep coming back to see what’s new. If you want something a little quicker, check out bounties.

The sandbox is a great way to test your skills for a challenge or bounty in a low-stress environment where there are no wrong answers. 

Browse sandbox challenges and register to try your skills.

These fast, targeted tasks are organized around a theme. The purpose is to gather and prepare data sources, generate code, generate code that sources data, or other tasks that help find solutions and solve problems.

You can work on real-world applications in a shorter time frame. And yes, there’s prize money.

Browse live bounties and register to join.

They are short-term paid opportunities (1–6 months) for specialized expertise. The Onward team sources talent from our global community for open projects in the energy industry, and then provides white glove project management.

If you’re chosen for a project, you’ll be provided a cloud-based virtual workstation with preloaded datasets, industry software, and technical support so you can work and collaborate securely from anywhere.

Projects are sponsored by organizations and entrepreneurs who need additional perspective from geoscientists or data scientists within a project management and support framework. Projects help sponsors glean multiple perspectives, generate fresh ideas, make informed and timely decisions, and accelerate go/no-go evaluations.

Experienced geoscientists have been asked to provide asset evaluation, opportunity identification, and prospect risking. Project sponsors have asked for help testing new tools or workflows; building, organizing, or cleaning a database; training machine learning models; and labeling data.

Read stories of completed projects on our blog.

Browse open projects and register to apply.

If you’d like to sponsor a project, we want to hear from you. 

Great! Let us know about your idea.

The Onward Accelerator program supports startups in the climate tech and energy industries with funding, feedback, and guidance.

The Onward Accelerator is looking for founders with climate tech companies in the pre-seed to seed stage.

Startups participating in the accelerator benefit from valuable feedback and guidance from world-class experts on a regular basis, access to exclusive program content, exposure and energy-industry networking, investments, and more. As of August 2023, $3.2M has been invested through the accelerator program and investments have grown to $88M in total valuations.

Applications for Cohort 4 will open in January 2024.

There is a weekly time commitment of 2 – 5 hours that includes participation in live program sessions and regular check-ins with the accelerator team.  Startups also have the option to take advantage of the customized support our team offers via office hours and one-on-ones with our mentor community. The more you put into the program, the more you get out of it.

A key benefit of our program is customization. We consistently ask for input throughout the cohort and adjust our content accordingly to ensure the topics we cover are delivering value.

A snapshot of topics we’ve covered for past cohorts include IP strategy, pursuing pilot projects, product & engineering roadmaps, value props & messaging, business development, integrated GTM & revenue strategy, fundraising, grants, storytelling, pitch coaching, scaling your team, and more. 

We typically invest $50–250K for a small equity stake and fund the investment at the start of the program.

Our program is fully virtual. In fact, many of our Onward employees work remotely so we understand how to effectively provide our startups with support and offer engaging content via a virtual setting.

Participants also have the opportunity to participate in-person at two Onward Startup Showcase events in Houston and Austin, Texas, at the end of the program to connect with potential partners and investors.  

We do not have a set number. We accept companies based on alignment, capacity, and our annual budget for investments.

Yes! We understand that some founders may be part of multiple programs or want the benefits of our program in addition to programs previously completed.

Yes, we strongly encourage it! We love to hear about the progress companies have made.

Technical, financial, marketing, and commercial experts and more, with backgrounds across areas including the energy sector, climate tech, and entrepreneurship.

Yes! Our program is fully remote. Participants also have the opportunity to participate in-person at two different startup showcase events in Houston and Austin, Texas, at the end of the program to connect with potential partners and investors.  

Our team partners with the investor community throughout the program to provide guidance from a VC’s perspective. And the customized nature of our program allows us to help you get in front of not just investors but the right investors for your startup. Additionally, our program culminates in the opportunity to connect directly with potential investors during two startup showcase events for the cohort.  

We like to emphasize that we’re in it for the long haul. Upon graduation from the accelerator program, you’ll transition to our active alumni community. You’ll remain a part of our Onward community, and we’ll continue to support you in whatever ways we can. Your success is our success.

The Onward Innovation Lab is our research and development team dedicated to taking energy moonshots. We tackle huge problems that if solved would change the world.

Absolutely. Check out the events page.

Not at all. In fact, we have a few in-person events coming up. Check out the events page. We also attend, sponsor, and speak at events throughout the year. We hope to see you soon!

We’re always welcoming new team members! Check out our careers page.

Onward is a remote-first team that gathers quarterly in Austin, Texas. Team members enjoy our open vacation policy, tuition assistance, performance bonus, and a whole lot of other perks. See them all on our careers page.