Conference: CET: Workforce Accelerator for Fusion Energy Technology Development

这个奖项是为了回应关于清洁能源主题会议提案的致同事信23-108。该奖项支持组织一次会议，重点关注未来聚变能源技术的劳动力发展需求。在过去几年中，随着重要的科学技术突破和私营部门投资的迅速增加，核聚变能研究和开发领域发生了重大变化。新兴的核聚变行业对劳动力的需求正在以一种学术劳动力发展计划目前无法匹配的速度增长。本次会议将探讨新型的以教育和研究为基础的聚变能培训项目，这些项目可以在从贸易学校、社区学院到研究型大学的各种机构中开发。该会议计划于2024年5月下旬在汉普顿大学附近举行，重点是将公共和私人利益相关者聚集在一起，以确定在聚变研究和教育方面建立伙伴关系的机会，目标是满足对有才能、多样化劳动力的需求。新兴聚变能源工业和国家研究实验室在公共部门的劳动力需求是高度跨学科的。他们跨越了从技术人员到博士级科学家和工程师的一系列专业和必要的技术准备水平，并且需要受过培训的个人参与社区，更广泛地为聚变能源技术建立社会许可。会议的目标包括：(1)确定核聚变能源科学和技术方面的技术挑战，以扩大劳动力规模；(2)列举现有劳动力发展能力和关键绩效者的状况；(3)揭示在发展包容性和跨学科的核聚变能源劳动力方面填补空白的机会。会议的一项重要成果将是一份白皮书，其中就如何最好地解决未来核聚变能源技术的劳动力发展需求提出了一系列建议。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was in response to Dear Colleague Letter 23-108 on Conference Proposals on Clean Energy Topics. This award supports the organization of a conference focused on workforce development needs for future fusion energy technologies. The fusion energy research and development landscape has seen significant changes in the last several years, with important scientific and technological breakthroughs and a rapid rise of investment in the private sector. The workforce needs of the nascent fusion industry are growing at a rate that academic workforce development programs are not currently able to match. This conference will explore new types of educational and research-based fusion energy training programs that can be developed at institutions spanning the range from trade schools and community colleges to research intensive universities. The conference is planned to be held near Hampton University in late May of 2024, and will focus on bringing public and private stakeholders together to identify opportunities for partnership in fusion research and education with the goal of meeting the needs for a talented, diverse workforce.The workforce needs of the emerging fusion energy industry and the national research laboratories within the public sector are highly interdisciplinary. They span a range of professions and necessary levels of technical preparation from technicians to PhD-level scientists and engineers, and need individuals trained to engage communities to establish the social license for fusion energy technology more broadly. The goals of the conference include: (1) identifying technical challenges in fusion energy science and technology to be targeted for workforce expansion, (2) enumerating existing workforce development capabilities and the status of key performers, (3) revealing opportunities for filling the gaps in developing an inclusive and interdisciplinary fusion energy workforce. A key deliverable of the conference will be a white paper with a set of recommendations on how to best address the workforce development needs for future fusion energy technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.