Environmental scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have recently expanded collaborations with minority-serving institutions and historically Black colleges and universities across the nation to broaden the experiences and skills of student scientists while bringing fresh insights to the national lab’s missions.

The partnerships are supported by special programs at DOE, including the Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research Program’s Research Development and Partnership Pilot projects, or RDPP; the Office of Science’s Reaching New Energy Sciences Workforce projects, or RENEW; the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program, or MSIPP, and other internships.

“Addressing environmental challenges in an equitable manner requires a broad pool of talent and perspectives. These collaborations give us an opportunity to connect with students from historically marginalized communities and enables their access to the unique capabilities and expertise available at the national laboratories. The result is beneficial to ORNL’s science mission, our staff members and to the students’ professional development,” said Eric Pierce, director of the ORNL Environmental Sciences Division.