Building Grid Resilience for Public Health and Safety Through Integrated Consequence Mitigation

Organization

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Reference Code

NREL-FACES-2025-0016

Description

The goal of the FACES program is to empower science technology, engineering, and math (STEM) faculty from emerging research institutions (including associates, baccalaureate, masters, and R2 doctoral granting institutions) by equipping them with enhanced research skills and expertise in clean energy science.

FACES is a 10-week summer program that provides faculty with the opportunity to collaborate with NREL researchers and develop scalable education modules on topics like community engagement, human behavior, energy and environmental science, and artificial intelligence. The first eight weeks will be spent at NREL in an immersive environment with an NREL staff researcher/mentor. The final two weeks will be conducted virtually to prepare a final deliverable. A Customized Learning Solution (CLS) will be the culminating milestone of the research experience with the intent for your hosting NREL mentor to travel to your institution and deliver the CLS to your class.

This internship will develop and test an interdisciplinary approach to measure variations of public health and safety outcomes using legislative, health, and technology inputs.

We will focus on reliable delivery of electricity for public health and safety, and the role that public buildings and healthcare facilities could play in supplying critical load. To improve resilience in energy infrastructure our scenario will anticipate and prepare for the increasing use—and spatially expanding— electricity-dependent medical devices that aging populations and persons with disabilities rely on across health-care facilities and private residences.

Aiming for synchronization of state regulations, public health and safety, and energy technology, we will use NREL’s REopt tool to analyze public and/or healthcare facilities pre-event investment in renewable energy systems with battery storage to generate, store, and distribute electricity. Using the tool, we can test the potential performance of these additional systems against various grid outage and duration scenarios, and adequacy of delivery for both normal power operations as well as power disruptions.

Participants in this project will receive hands-on opportunities to learn about and use NREL’s state-of-the-art tools in energy resilience science and design, and how continued use of open-source tools could be used for research, policy, and academic curricula to advance potential public health and safety benefits at the intersection of utilities, healthcare delivery, public policy, and energy technology.

Participation requires a commitment to the full ten-week program (June 2 through August 8, 2025).

Selected faculty participants will receive a weekly stipend of $1,800 for the ten-week program (paid biweekly). Selected faculty may also be eligible to receive a $500 inbound/outbound travel reimbursement.

Deadline: March 15, 2025

A Complete Application Includes

• All required fields in both the Zintellect profile and Zintellect application form, including Current Curriculum Vitae (include list of any papers, presentations, or publications)
• Two References submitted through Zintellect
• Customized learning solution abstract (150 words) showing how the proposed project will align with and be integrated into your current course load. References to one of the four FACES pillars preferred: Human Behavior (1), Community Engagement (2), Environmental Science (3), Energy Transition and Artificial Intelligence (4). (Learning solution only requires alignment with a single course)
• Personal statement
• Provide a personal statement indicating your interest in renewable energy research, desire to bring current research into the classroom, and any other relevant information you feel would help inform our decision.
• Submitted documents must have all personal identification numbers, and/or dates of birth removed (blanked out, blackened out, made illegible, etc.) prior to uploading into the application system.
  

The selected applicants will be responsible for providing the following deliverables as part of their appointment:

• Pre-Survey
• Project Summary Abstract and Presentation to the research group
• Customized Learning Solution (CLS)
• Post-Survey
  
  

The deliverables that selected applicants provide will need to include information on the eight weeks at NREL and the final two virtual weeks spent preparing for the final deliverable focusing on the Customized Learning Solution (CLS).

Qualifications

You must meet the following to be eligible to apply:

• Must be a United States Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident at the time of applying.
• Be a current (2024-25 academic year) faculty member from an eligible non-R1 institution including eligible Community Colleges, as categorized by the Carnegie Classification.
• Be recognized as full-time faculty by your institution, not holding "adjunct" or "visiting" designations.
  
  

Additional Eligibility Factors

• Have coverage under a health insurance plan before arriving at the appointment site and maintain coverage during the appointment.
• Have interest in a specific NREL area of research.
  
  

You should have interest or experience in one of the following areas:

• Public health
• Public administration
• Engineering
• Energy systems
  
  

Point of Contact

Abby

Eligibility Requirements">1 )

• Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
• Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree.
• Discipline(s):
• Computer, Information, and Data Sciences ( Show more