An accelerator is a short-term program that helps businesses and/or projects rapidly scale and grow by providing mentorship, consulting from subject matter/technical experts, and access to partner and funding networks.

The NextCycle Michigan Accelerator is a free six-month program that provides coaching and mentoring in business and operational planning, access to technical and circular economy expertise, connections to supply chain partners, identification of funding pathways, development of creative strategies, and much more. The support is customized to each project to advance it toward implementation, where it can fill in gaps and strengthen Michigan’s circular economy.

The cohort kicks off with an in-person two-day academy, followed by several months of virtual coaching and support, and finally culminates in a showcase where teams pitch their projects and compete for awards.

NextCycle Michigan is open to public, private, and nonprofit organizations that have projects focused on material reuse, repair, recycling, organic material recovery, or recycled/recovered material content in new products. Proposed projects must be located in, and/or demonstrate potential for directly addressing materials generated in the state of Michigan.