Visiting Faculty Program (VFP) Overview

The Visiting Faculty Program (VFP), formerly called Faculty and Student Teams (FaST), is designed to provide an opportunity for faculty members from institutions historically marginalized in STEM to enhance research capabilities and strengthen STEM education and learning practices to develop talent to contribute to the Department of Energy (DOE) research areas. VFP accomplishes this mission in two tracks: (1) VFP Research Collaboration Track and (2) VFP Teaching Initiative Track.

The VFP Research Collaboration track seeks to increase the research competitiveness of faculty members and their students at institutions historically underrepresented in the research community to expand the workforce vital to the DOE mission areas. Faculty members are not required to have previously collaborated with the DOE national laboratories to be considered for the research collaboration track.

A part of DOE’s “Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW)” Initiative, the VFP Teaching Initiative track seeks to enhance STEM teaching capacities of faculty members at institutions historically underrepresented in the STEM research enterprise through research collaboration with DOE national laboratories. This track enables visiting faculty to develop course content, certificate programs, seminars, modules, and learning resources to foster the connection between the STEM curriculum and career opportunities in key DOE science and technology mission areas. To be considered for the Teaching Initiative track, faculty members must have previously participated in VFP, formerly called Faculty and Student Teams (FaST).

As a component of VFP’s Research Collaboration and Teaching Initiative tracks, selected university/college faculty members collaborate with DOE laboratory research staff on a research project of mutual interest. Additionally, faculty member participants may invite up to two students (one of which may be a graduate student) to join the project in the summer terms.

The Visiting Faculty Program is sponsored and managed by the DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) in collaboration with the DOE national laboratories.

Prospective faculty applicants may apply for summer and non-summer terms to collaborate on research opportunities with DOE national laboratories. During a non-summer term (Spring or Fall), the program will focus on faculty participants only and last for 10 weeks.

Prospective applicants may choose from two tracks to participate in VFP. Each of the 15 participating DOE national laboratoriesoffer different research opportunities (not all laboratories participate) and interested faculty members are encouraged to contact DOE laboratory scientists in advance to discuss research projects of mutual interest.

All VFP faculty applicants must submit at the time of application a research project proposal co-developed with the collaborating research staff located at the host DOE laboratory. Proposal guidance and requirements can be found here.

Prospective faculty applicants may apply for summer and non-summer terms to collaborate on research opportunities with DOE national laboratories.

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