In the future, more funded research clusters within the defined niche areas—as well as new emerging research clusters—will be funded. For example, water resources and bio-technology are areas that have a strong foundation at the University of Wyoming. “It’s important that the new niche areas branch out beyond just oil and gas to touch other technologies that would benefit both Wyoming and the United States broadly,” says Pat Burns, chair of the UW College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) National Advisory Board and a member of the Wyoming Governor’s Energy, Engineering, STEM Integration Task Force. “A true approach to Tier-1 needs to cross all CEAS departments, and that’s doable with the current excellent ‘clusters’ approach CEAS has initiated.”
“Biotechnology and water are focuses that have direct relevance to energy and can naturally help us diversify, because research in these fields has cross-cutting relevance and impact to other industries and applications too. One example area is water reclamation and reuse,” says UW Tier-1 Engineering Initiative Program Coordinator Richard Horner. “They’re natural platforms to create the differentiation that we want and to promote interdisciplinary activities.