ESS Project Selected as Recipient of DOE’s FAIR Initiative
August 2023
Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) Initiative Will Support Research at Minority Serving Institutions and Emerging Research Institutions
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $37 million in funding for 52 projects to 44 institutions to build research capacity, infrastructure, and expertise at institutions historically underrepresented in DOE’s Office of Science portfolio, including Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and Emerging Research Institutions (ERIs). Through the Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) initiative, the Office of Science is supporting mutually beneficial relationships between MSIs/ERIs and partnering institutions to perform basic research in applied mathematics, biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, geoscience, isotope research, materials science, and physics. Ensuring America’s best and brightest students have pathways to STEM fields will be key to achieving President Biden’s energy and climate goals, including achieving a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
One of the selected projects will join the Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division (EESSD) within DOE’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program.
- Dr. Tian Dong (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) and Dr. Jon Schwenk (Los Alamos National Laboratory) will start their project “Evaluating Water, Sediment, and Nutrient Transport Rates and Accumulation Patterns in Alluvial Ridge Basins Between the Abandoned River Channels (Resacas) of the Rio Grande Delta.”
“FAIR is an essential capacity-building initiative that will broaden the impact of DOE and the Office of Science in tackling critical and pressing scientific questions and challenges,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm. “To reach our scientific goals, we need all voices represented at the table, including those who have been historically excluded from critical scientific conversations. This funding will help academic institutions expand their research portfolios and spur future scientific discovery, creating a top-notch workforce to advance American competitiveness.”
Projects focus on a diverse range of topics in fundamental research in support of DOE’s mission. This funding will expand the talent pool that will further the Department’s missions, transform our understanding of nature, and catalyze scientific discoveries that can lead to technical breakthroughs. The projects were selected by competitive scientific peer review under the DOE FAIR Funding Opportunity Announcement. The project list and more information can be found on the FAIR website.