The OECIF and OEPF programs provide seed money for consolidating or initiating promising OE projects for transitioning by the Joint Forces, Combatant Commands (CCMDs), Department of Defense (DOD) Agencies, and/or the Services. Congress funded OECIF in FY2012 in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and mandated OEPF in the FY2021 NDAA. Proposers submit their ideas through the Services, Combatant Commands, or other DOD Agency.

OE-I funds government partners to lead technology maturation. Some of those government partners, such as DIU, find it useful to seek industry participation. Industry participants should find government sponsorship for their projects in advance of submitting project proposals. For more information on open calls for solicitation, please see Open Solicitations below

The OE-I proposal process may change based on topic areas and partner agencies, but the typical process includes:

• OE-I reviews Calls for Proposals on a given topic area multiple times per year
• Interested parties submit their proposals to the Services, Combatant Commands, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) or the Defense Logistics Agency – Energy (DLA-Energy)
• The Components run their internal review process and submit their 1-N ranking and 1-5 Proposal Assessment input into OEMS
• The Proposal Evaluation Board reviewers evaluate proposals using OE improvement and scoring criteria