The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office and Office of Indian Energy announced that $11.3 million in federal funding will become available to higher education institutions to train the next generation of America’s energy workforce as part of the Partnerships for Academic-Industry Career Training (PACT) Initiative. Of the funding, $2.3 million will be exclusively for tribal colleges and universities.
PACT is accepting applications from higher education institutions including vocational schools, trade schools, technical colleges, community colleges, and tribal colleges that are looking to enhance their existing training program(s) or to establish a training program focused on energy careers.
The eligible areas for funding must focus on at least one of the following areas:
- Integration, safe use, and maintenance of oil, natural gas, coal, or geothermal energy technologies
- Using CO2 to improve hydrocarbon recovery
- Produced-water treatment and disposal
- Power generation for data centers or remote operations
- Technologies that enable any of the above, including but not limited to: construction related to the building out of facilities or infrastructure, applying and using artificial intelligence and machine learning, or geographic information systems.
Application submissions must be received by PACT partner, TechWerx, by 5:00 p.m. on 17 July. DOE selection is expected by fall 2026.