The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) manages the  U.S. DOE University Coal Research (UCR) Program. For nearly 25 years, the DOE's Fossil Energy Office has issued over $100 million  in grants to the nation's leading academic researchers for innovative solutions to improve the utilization of coal. The program has also provided the opportunity for college students to obtain "hands-on" experience in coal research.  

UCR projects have helped spawn, nurture, and develop new concepts for using coal more efficiently, whether producing electric power, high-value carbons, or hydrogen separation membranes and chemical feedstocks with virtually no pollution.  Some of these projects have moved on toward further development by attracting other sources of funding (government, private sector, or both). In addition, many UCR researchers have received various forms of recognition in the form of special awards, citations, patents, and royalties. From NETL's perspective, all of these constitute success stories that resulted from the research dollars invented by DOE.

Each year Congress requests that we document the value derived from the research sponsored through the UCR program to determine future funding. Having a database of all UCR success stories would help us justify the program and solicit potential increases in program funding. Additionally, NETL would like to celebrate the accomplishments of the university researcher by sharing his/her success stories on its webpages.

We hope that you will share your success stories that resulted from your UCR-funded research efforts. We have provided a summary of three success stories in the above links. If, after reading these, you recall an event that pertains to your research and which might constitute a success story, please share this with us.. We will review your responses and contact you, if needed, for further information.

If you have any questions, please contact Paula Flenory at 412-386-4781 or by e-mail at, flenory@netl.doe.gov.

Read what others have done
with their funding.

• Improved Laser-Printing and Color Copying [PDF 160KB]
• Pure Pharmaceutical Drugs [PDF 103KB]
• Computational Fluid Dynamics Model [PDF 118KB]