Conference: CET: Workforce Accelerator for Fusion Energy Technology Development

该奖项是为了回应亲爱的同事信23-108关于清洁能源主题的会议建议。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，聚变能源的研究和开发格局发生了重大变化，科学和技术取得了重大突破，私营部门的投资迅速增加。新兴聚变产业的劳动力需求正在以学术劳动力发展计划目前无法匹配的速度增长。本次会议将探讨新类型的教育和研究为基础的融合能源培训计划，可以在机构跨越范围从贸易学校和社区学院到研究密集型大学开发。 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，以满足对人才，多样化劳动力的需求。新兴聚变能源行业和公共部门内的国家研究实验室的劳动力需求是高度跨学科的。 它们涵盖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，并需要经过培训的个人参与社区，以更广泛地建立聚变能源技术的社会许可证。 会议的目标包括：（1）确定聚变能源科学和技术的技术挑战，以针对劳动力扩张，（2）列举现有的劳动力发展能力和主要执行者的地位，（3）揭示填补发展包容性和跨学科聚变能源劳动力差距的机会。 会议的一个关键成果将是一份白色文件，其中包括一系列关于如何最好地满足未来聚变能源技术的劳动力发展需求的建议。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.