The deadline to apply for the Diversity In Science and Technology Advances National Clean Energy in Solar  (DISTANCE-SOLAR) Funding Opportunity Announcement, is this Monday, March 25, 2013. The funding opportunity, which was posted February 20 by the Department's SunShot Initatiave, is seeking applications from Minority Serving Institutions to support solar science and technology research to advance the development of a diverse and innovative workforce.

The long-term desired outcomes of this program are to increase innovation in solar, with a greater diversity of innovative ideas being driven by greater representation from members of currently underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), spur new job creation in the U.S., and integrate more solar into the U.S. energy supply. 

The near term goal of the program regarding workforce and underrepresented groups is to create a more diverse professional solar workforce, through students’ direct research participation and the exposure of more students to solar-related content in courses. The near term goal of the program regarding solar technology research is to contribute scientifically to technologies that can help achieve (or exceed) the SunShot Program objective to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade. This program also aims to build Minority Serving Institution (MSI) solar research capabilities.

The full solicitation (DE-FOA-0000857) can be found in the DOE Funding Opportunity Exchange and on grants.gov