Celebrating a Major NSF Investment in Our Region's Energy Future

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon University Community:

I am writing today to share some great news with our university community. Yesterday, the National Science Foundation announced their selection of the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure (RETI) Consortium as one of only 12 new NSF Regional Innovation Engines.

This development is an extraordinary milestone for Carnegie Mellon University and our region and is a reflection of the power of partnership. West Virginia University is leading this effort in collaboration with CMU and the University of Pittsburgh and alongside more than 60 regional partners. Backed by up to $160 million in NSF funding over the next decade, and leveraging $161 million from our industry, workforce, philanthropy, state government and community partners, this effort will seek to strengthen American competitiveness, accelerate technology commercialization, and create new economic opportunities for workers, businesses and communities across Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

This award is the result of sustained collaboration over many months, and it builds on the momentum created by the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, which drew together higher education, industry and government last year around a shared vision for our region's future. That vision has earned broad support across the political spectrum, and I am grateful to U.S. Senators John Fetterman and Dave McCormick, U.S. Representative Summer Lee, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and many other state and regional leaders for their support of this effort.

As our news story on this announcement shares, the RETI Engine will fund research focused on developing more efficient and resilient power grids and industrial energy systems. RETI will also support deploying this research into new regional businesses through entrepreneur fellowships, business development workshops and state-of-the-art testing facilities. CMU will lead major commercialization efforts for the RETI Engine, helping translate promising energy technologies into startups, products and economic opportunity across Appalachia.

This achievement is the result of extraordinary work by many faculty, staff and students across a number of CMU colleges and schools. Please join me in congratulating Valerie Karplus, who serves as our lead investigator and will help shape RETI's policy leadership; Theresa Mayer and the Office of the Vice President for Research; and the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, led by Director Costa Samaras and Executive Director Daniel Tkacik. I am also grateful for the many colleagues across our research, entrepreneurship and commercialization ecosystem whose expertise will help ensure that RETI delivers lasting impact for our region.

I hope that you will join me in celebrating this exciting opportunity to demonstrate what is possible when great universities work together across institutional and state boundaries to solve challenges that matter.

Sincerely,

Farnam Jahanian
President
Henry L. Hillman President's Chair