The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will continue a longstanding collaboration on scientific and engineering research and enable increased partnership to address the most important challenges of the 21st century.
“Meeting contemporary challenges cannot be done in a vacuum. Partnerships are the best way to make an impact on the world’s largest and most difficult challenges,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “As sister agencies, the DOE Office of Science and NSF share the same goals of advancing the nation’s science and technology ecosystem. This MOU enables the agencies to scale-up their impact by leveraging each other’s investments to accelerate discovery and innovation.”
“This MOU will allow us to strengthen the partnership between DOE and NSF. It will expand the capabilities of each and allow us to continue to grow U.S. leadership in science and technology,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, DOE’s director of the Office of Science. “These kinds of partnerships are key to meeting current and future scientific challenges.”
This MOU builds upon previous NSF and DOE research partnerships, such as collaboration on large physics experiments, quantum information sciences and technologies, and access to scientific user facilities. The MOU also provides opportunities for collaboration on biotechnology, quantum information science and engineering, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Growing a diverse, inclusive STEM workforce is also a priority for both agencies.