DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) is enhancing and fostering a sustainable and diverse DOE-EM workforce STEM pipeline. Through technology curriculum and professional development and shared interest research, DOE-EM will promote the development of a nationally engaged scientific and engineering workforce to conduct basic research that will lead to future career pathways in the DOE-EM complex for underrepresented groups.

The technology curriculum and professional development objectives are focused on strengthening and promoting theoretical and experimental knowledge, skills, and dispositions Minority Serving Institution (MSI) collegiate students need to acquire to prepare and retain them as leading scientific and technical innovators in the Department of Energy complex. Curriculum and professional development will provide the MSI research community with support for resources, including purchases of specialized equipment and instrumentation for field and laboratory-based studies. It will also support MSI academic teams that cultivate and integrate R&D learning activities that incorporate the use of state-of-the-art capabilities that align and support current and future missions of DOE-EM.

The newly designed practicums will supplement college and university theoretical programs by exposing collegiate students to cutting edge research capabilities and development activities at the early onset of their career, maximizing the growth of students in applied STEM fields.

Through shared interest research, research collaborations between EM, DOE National Laboratories and MSI institutions will be established to enhance relationships, promote EM mission areas, and expand educational and research capacity. Shared interest research supports collaborative projects addressing the research needs of DOE-EM’s cleanup mission. Areas of research may include science and health, engineering, environmental science, and technology development. Applications are specifically sought to leverage the research capabilities of one collaborating organization to build capabilities at one or more MSIs. Faculty and student participation at the collaborating National Laboratory will be strongly encouraged.

Topic Areas in the opportunity include:

• Deactivation & Decommissioning
• Digital Technologies
• Robotics

In order to enhance opportunities for underrepresented MSIs, this notice further restricts eligibility to MSIs with a student population less than or equal to 5,000.