Current status of university-based energy institutes in the United States and a pathway to forming a national organization

Over the past twenty years, the number of university-based energy institutes (UBEI) that focus on supporting energy-related research has increased substantially. A recent set of surveys, the results of which we share here, show that there are over 150 active energy institutes at Ph.D.-granting universities in the United States, many of which have a significant level of internal or external financial support (and there are likely many more at 4-year colleges and other institutions of higher learning). While most of these institutes have formal or informal collaborative interactions with other institutes, there is no existing nation-wide network or organization that all institutes can interact with. As such, we have endeavored to investigate and classify the current landscape of UBEIs, with the intent of enabling the formation of a centralized organization to further support the evolution of the academic energy research movement in the U.S. After an initial review, we convened a summit-style retreat in the fall of 2019 in Pittsburgh PA that was attended by over 100 individuals representing 67 UBEIs. Multiple surveys and elicitations were conducted before, during, and after this meeting, and we present here an overview of our findings, and a summary of our proposed path forward.