This week, NSF Director Panchanathan traveled to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, joining Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) to spotlight the launch of two NSF awards: the Technology Enabled Advanced Mobility (TEAM TN) project and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing.
TEAM is one of 44 teams to win the first-ever $1 million NSF Regional Innovation Engines development awards, which will lay the groundwork to be competitive for a full NSF Engines Hub award in the future. UT Knoxville is spearheading the coalition of 90 organizations working together to place Tennessee and the Southeast in the vanguard of vehicle electrification.
"This visit helps to underscore the enormous potential that NSF investments like the NSF Engines and Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers awards have in shaping critical fields like transportation electrification, material design and advanced manufacturing"
The university's new Center for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing is part of a cohort receiving a $162 million NSF investment that will support nine new materials research centers around the country. Each center will receive $18 million over the next six years and serve as a hub where academia and industry can collaborate, translating cutting-edge research into technologies and solutions with real-world impacts.
"This visit helps to underscore the enormous potential that NSF investments like the NSF Engines and Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers awards have in shaping critical fields like transportation electrification, material design and advanced manufacturing," Director Panchanathan said. "NSF and its partners are helping communities leverage their local resources and talent to grow self-sustaining innovation ecosystems, to create innovation anywhere and opportunities everywhere."
Later in the week, Director Panchanathan was a featured keynote speaker at the National Academy of Inventors Annual Meeting, speaking on the theme of "Diversifying Innovation for a Strong Economy and Sustainable Future," encouraging all participants to commit to building strong partnerships across government, industry and academia to seek solutions to societies most pressing issues. It is the power of partnerships and collaborations that fuel the translation of scientific discovery to social impact through innovation and entrepreneurship.
