Faculty and Student Teams Program

About FaST

The Faculty and Student Teams (FaST) Program is a cooperative effort between the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Faculty from colleges and universities with limited research facilities and those institutions serving populations, women, and minorities underrepresented in the fields of science, engineering, and technology are encouraged to apply for the FaST program. The FaST program will support a team comprised of one faculty member and 2 – 3 undergraduate students. The program provides hands-on research opportunities in DOE national laboratories during the summer. The faculty member identifies a mutually beneficial research area amenable to collaboration by the faculty member and the laboratory scientist. Potential areas of collaboration are based upon the Project Descriptions described at the specific DOE Office of Science laboratory. Faculty and student team members recruited by the faculty member should apply online. If the application is accepted, your institution may be responsible for requesting supplemental funding from NSF to support the team's participation.

Among the many favorable attributes of FaST are:

• An opportunity to contribute to and be on the ground floor of new ideas and exciting projects leading to publications for faculty and graduate school opportunities for students
• A highly interactive and stimulating immersion experience in the research environment
• Sustainable professional relationships between faculty and Laboratory investigators
• A supportive approach that reinforces learning through research participation
• Workshops and training to minimize the "culture shock" of entering and working in a National Laboratory setting
• Opportunities to reform undergraduate education
• Internet-based technologies to support distance education and research collaboration
• An opportunity to add to the diversity of the science and engineering workforce at the DOE National Laboratories
• An opportunity for DOE laboratory investigators to have a dedicated team supported and working to advance their research and development objectives