Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation, and Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, underscored the impact of President Biden’s bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act on accelerating U.S. leadership in innovation during a roundtable discussion at the University of Nevada, Reno.
During the event, the officials highlighted projects and programs authorized by the bipartisan legislation, including NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines, which support projects across key technology areas, NSF said Friday.
UNR leads one of the 44 projects selected for the first class of the NSF Engines Development Award. Each awardee team will receive up to $1 million to develop ways to support the local innovation ecosystem.
The UNR-led project aims to use the funding to advance the lithium battery supply chain in Nevada to support the production of renewable energy.
“Boosting the domestic supply chain of advanced lithium batteries, at the core of technologies like electric vehicles and solar panels, is critical to accelerating the U.S. transition away from fossil fuels, toward a clean energy future,” Panchanathan said.
