Energy Department Awards $16 Million to 16 Universities Under PROSPECT Planning Prize to Rebuild Critical Minerals Workforce
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) on October 26 selected 16 universities to receive a total of $16 million through the PROSPECT Planning Prize, $1 million to each school. The winning universities will advance nationwide efforts to grow the skilled workforce required to produce, process, recover, and recycle critical minerals in the United States while creating good-paying jobs. DOE said rebuilding America's critical minerals and mining workforce is a key priority for the Trump Administration.
"America has abundant natural resources, but we need the skilled workforce to turn those resources into economic drivers that will grow our economy and create new jobs," said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson. "For decades, we have allowed our mining and critical minerals workforce to decline and our domestic supply chains of critical minerals to weaken. PROSPECT is about reversing that trend by challenging universities to rapidly grow the number of graduates ready to build and sustain the American critical minerals supply chains, from mines to materials."
DOE said the winning universities demonstrated outstanding planning for innovative programs aimed at substantially increasing the number of graduates and other credentialed professionals prepared for careers in mining and related supply chain fields in the next two years. The United States faces a growing shortage of skilled mining and critical minerals professionals and will require an estimated 6,000 new mining engineers over the next decade. Expanding the domestic talent pipeline is essential to strengthening domestic supply chains and reducing reliance on foreign nations for critical materials, DOE said.
The selections are part of DOE's broader $100 million Providing Opportunities for Specialized Education in Critical Technologies (PROSPECT) initiative. The PROSPECT Planning Prize is funded by CMEI and managed by the National Laboratory of the Rockies under the American-Made prize program.
The selected universities are: Colorado School of Mines; Columbia University; Michigan Technological University; Missouri University of Science and Technology; Montana Technological University; New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; The Pennsylvania State University; The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP); The University of Utah; University of Alaska Fairbanks; University of Arizona; University of Kentucky; University of Nevada, Reno; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; and West Virginia University.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：工业设施内查看平板数据的技术人员（资料图）。美国能源部 PROSPECT 项目官方图，公共领域。 / Technicians reviewing tablet data in an industrial facility (file image). U.S. Department of Energy, PROSPECT program, public domain.
