On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will award $30 million in federal grants to several HBCUs as well as to a college that primarily serves Native American students in the Pacific Northwest.
The grants are part of the department’s Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP), which is designed to assist students specializing in STEM fields.
“Leveraging the full potential of America’s best and brightest means including students from every pocket of the nation, and of all races and ethnicities,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement announcing the award.
Of the $30 million in federal grants, $25 million will go to HBCUs.
$20 million will go to the following South Carolina institutions: Claflin University, Allen University, Benedict College, Clinton College, Denmark Technical College, Morris College, South Carolina State University, and Voorhees College.
Tennessee State University, Fisk University, and Meharry Medical College are to be rewarded the remaining $5 million.
The grants are part of the $56 million allocated to the Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program in the 2022 budget that passed Congress in March. That budget allows the Department of Energy to further its mission of building a highly skilled and diverse workforce from roughly 700 Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) while removing inequitable barriers to advancement and development opportunities.
“With today’s investments, DOE is following through with our previously announced commitments to MSIs to remove barriers and unlock opportunities for millions of Americans—inspiring the next generation of science and technology leaders and positioning America to lead the world in the industries of the future, from artificial intelligence and clean energy to quantum computing and advanced engineering,” said Granholm.
