Photo courtesy of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions (HBCU/OMI) Program provides a mechanism for cooperative research among HBCU/OMI institutions, the private sector, and Federal agencies. The central thrust of the program is to generate fresh ideas and tap underutilized talent, define applicable fundamental scientific principles, and develop advanced concepts for generating new and improved technologies across the full spectrum of fossil energy R&D programs.

The program also provides a forum to facilitate technology transfer, strengthen educational training, and develop and enhance the research infrastructure and capabilities of HBCU/OMI for producing the next generation of scientists and engineers of diverse backgrounds. It provides and promotes science and engineering opportunities that foster private sector participation in fossil energy-related programs.

Since its inception in 1984, the program has emphasized improving the energy and environmental capabilities of advanced coal, oil, gas, and environmental technology concepts.

Core research is currently organized under three technical areas:

• Sensors and Controls — Control system development is viewed as an important enabling technology for the commercial deployment of advanced power generation systems.
• Computational Energy Sciences — Work may be proposed in areas such as the development of theory and advanced computational models, the gathering of experimental data from physical systems or molecular dynamics simulations, and the validation of the models.
• Advanced Materials — New materials are required to significantly improve performance and reduce costs of existing and/or advanced coal-based power systems.

This program supports DOE's Strategic Plan for cooperative opportunities to perform fundamental and applied scientific research to advance domestic and global industrial competitiveness, clean energy research, national security, diversity initiatives, and environmental quality.

Contact information:

• Edgar Klunder
  Edgar.Klunder@netl.doe.gov
  (412) 386-4678