UW School of Energy Resources to Provide Funding for Nuclear

 
nuclear

The School of Energy Resources (SER) is requesting proposals for a funding opportunity for University of Wyoming faculty and staff members on nuclear-related research projects as part of an initiative to grow nuclear research capacity among the campus community.

The funding can be for stand-alone projects or used as cost share for projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) or other funding agencies. The deadline for proposal submissions is Thursday, Dec. 1. The selected projects will be notified by Thursday, Dec. 15.

“SER has previously supported prep grants for faculty members receiving or pursuing sponsored research for nuclear-related projects through the Nuclear Energy Research Center,” says Scott Quillinan, SER senior director of research. “Some very valuable connections within the UW community resulted from our initial funding support, so we are looking forward to now expanding our efforts to help incentivize larger-scale projects as they relate to nuclear energy.”

The opportunity will fund projects through July 2026 covering two research areas:

-- The first will seek to bolster laboratory-based nuclear research to be conducted on the selected project and future projects. Proposals will be considered that request laboratory or computational equipment that enhances nuclear-related research capacity at UW. Any laboratory equipment or computational capacity awarded under the request for proposals must be incorporated into a shared user facility that is accessible to another faculty member with nuclear-related activities and appropriate training. Two years of maintenance and operational costs can be included in the proposal budget.

-- The second is to support research or personnel focused on producing papers, data or other output to support a nuclear industry built in Wyoming, and to align with the state’s needs and nuclear energy goals as outlined by DOE. Funds in this area of interest can be used for research purposes including cost share; undergraduate and graduate student support; postdoctoral research support; research equipment; consumables; and other needs for the proposed research, such as faculty summer salary and travel expenses.

Proposals for up to $600,000 are welcome for the first area of interest and, for the second area of interest, will be considered up to $200,000.

“We are grateful for the generous support from the Wyoming Legislature and its continued support of the SER mission,” says SER Executive Director Holly Krutka. “We anticipate that the proposals we receive will be highly competitive, but we look forward to aiding important nuclear research on campus that will have the potential to make a substantial difference moving forward.”

The opportunity to use the money as cost-share for larger DOE-funded grants also will maximize the impact of the seed funding, Quillinan says.

“There is a lot of money currently available through the Infrastructure Bill that supports nuclear energy research,” he says. “If there are UW faculty with the expertise that positions them to pursue some of those grants, we want to facilitate the matching costs that would otherwise be prohibitive in seeking the funding.”

Selected proposals will be expected to provide SER with quarterly deliverables for the duration of the projects.

For more information about the request and for application submissions, download the full RFP here.

Proposals should be emailed to SER Project Specialist Tiffany Bishop at tbishop6@uwyo.edu with the subject “Wyoming Nuclear Capacity Building,” along with any other questions.

 

 
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