Scott Institute leads new era of national energy institute network

Carnegie Mellon’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation has played a key role in the University Energy Institute Leadership Collaborative (UEILC) since it was launched in 2019 to serve as a unifying resource for more than 150 university energy institutes across the United States. 

The UEILC will redouble its efforts to foster multidisciplinary, multisector collaboration and energy research opportunities thanks to new support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 

“The energy challenges we face today – from grid modernization to critical minerals and supply chains and everything in between – no single entity can solve these alone,” said Daniel Tkacik, executive director of the Scott Institute and the principal investigator of the new Sloan grant. “This new support will enable us to forge new and critical collaborations between our member institutions and external organizations from industry, government, and nonprofit sectors.” 

With the benefit of new resources, the UEILC can expand its output in tangible and intangible ways, encompassing not only the publication of collaborative research papers and annual reports but also the convenings among UEILC member institutions and potential external partners that encourage new projects to take off. 

A key objective of the UEILC that the Sloan Foundation’s support will enable is launching bridge builder fellowships at several member institutions as a mechanism for consistent exchanges of ideas and information. These so-called “Bridge-Builder Fellows” will lay the groundwork for the kinds of successful collaborations needed to drive real impact on today’s energy challenges.

Carnegie Mellon hosted the first leadership summit in 2019, drawing leadership from 67 university energy institutes from 32 states across the country, after which the UEILC was formally launched. 

The UEILC has continued to host in-person summits to encourage synthesis of ideas and formation of new collaborative efforts among universities and other stakeholders, such as those from industry and government. Support from the Sloan Foundation will promote an increase in in-person meetings, allowing UEILC members to share knowledge, align efforts, and co-develop programs in support of their shared goals to advance clean energy, inform policy, train students, and solve complex, real-world problems.