Grant Secures Energy Institute's Future | $150K to help fund executive director for Institute for Energy Innovation and Sustainability
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WPI Provost John Orr (left) and Clark University Provost David Angel (right) have been working behind the scenes to get a new “green†institute off the ground in Worcester.
Thanks to funding from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the Worcester-based Institute for Energy Innovation and Sustainability (IEIS) is officially off the ground — even if it doesn’t have an executive director yet.
The IEIS is the product of collaboration between Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University. And while up until this point the institute has been nothing more than an idea, the $150,000 grant from the clean energy center cements its status.
The grant will allow the institute to hire an executive director, something the organization’s instigators — WPI Provost John Orr and Clark University Provost David Angel — have been pursuing for the last few months.
Hiring Trend
Orr said that there’s a good pool of finalists and he expects an announcement within the next month. He said the institute is looking for a wide range of past experiences as it narrows the field of applicants.
“We’re looking for someone with substantial involvement with both the governmental and business side,” Orr said. “We’re not looking for a pure academic. The experience and interest of being out in the community in the business, government and community organization sides are all key.”
Marybeth Campbell, workforce development program director at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, said that the $150,000 grant was approved because of the institute’s comprehensive proposal — even though it doesn’t have an executive director yet.
“We definitely look for plans that will strengthen partnerships,” Campbell said. “That they were able to bring those elements together offers a good model that we can invest in.”
Mission Critical
The institute aims to develop alignment among Worcester area organizations committed to the areas of green technology and sustainability.
“We don’t want to be just another competing energy entity in and around Worcester,” Orr said. “There are quite a few of them doing good work and we’re working with them. We’re bringing those groups together so the whole is greater than the individual parts.”
The impetus for the institute's start came out of discussions between WPI, Clark and U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester. The initial idea led to discussions with businesses, where energy and utility companies like National Grid, as well as small start-ups, shared their workforce training needs.
The institute will work on three fronts: job creation, energy improvement and research and development.
With the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s funding in place, the institute not only can hire an executive director, but it can establish itself as a nonprofit. From there, it plans to seek out research funding, which will be directed back into the Worcester community.
The number of potential jobs to be created is in the hundreds, Orr said, pointing to the growth of the local biotech industry as a model.
“[Biotech has] been a great success for Worcester,” he said. “But it’s been a 20-year effort…Not that we don’t want to see some results quicker, but this is a long-term undertaking.”
Should things go according to plan, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center said it could continue to fund the institute, though Campbell acknowledged that there are a number of steps along the way.
“As with any grant or partnership, we want to see milestones being met,” she said. “We want to see outcomes and development before we decide to make more investments, but I wouldn’t say it’s off the table that we would consider additional funding...”
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