WFD RFI.pdf

U.S. National Science Foundation Request for Information (RFI):

Investing in U.S. Workforce Training and Innovation to Advance President Donald J.

Trump’s Trade Agreement with Japan and other Asian Partners to Ensure America’s Energy Dominance

Last Revised January 14, 2026

On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, President Donald J. Trump announced significant Japanese investments in American manufacturing and job creation, exceeding that country’s original $550 billion commitment. The announcement also included landmark investments in criti-cal minerals in the U.S.; historic purchases of U.S. energy and key funding to support do-mestic energy infrastructure development; a pledge to increase prospects in U.S. exports;

and a commitment to strengthen U.S.-Japan collaboration in combatting illegal drug traf-ficking1. Additionally, investments are directed at building infrastructure to support frontier artificial intelligence (AI), electronics, and supply chains.

The announced investments trigger unprecedented demand pull for both skilled and craft trades in the U.S. and will return high-paying and high-quality jobs that had previously been lost overseas. For example, the announcement of a $100 billion investment toward the U.S.

Government purchasing up to 10 AP1000 nuclear reactors will alone generate the need for 100,000 new jobs in engineering and construction roles at construction sites, and tens of thousands more throughout the U.S. manufacturing components contributing to the overall supply chain. Yet the U.S. does not have the skilled workforce to build and operate these nuclear power reactors at the scale the President has envisioned: building a nuclear reactor employs up to 9,000 workers at peak construction; each nuclear power plant employs 500 to 800 workers during steady-state operations; and nuclear power plants can operate out to 80 years or more, so a nuclear power plant can provide jobs for multiple generations of work-ers.

Therefore, to capitalize on these investments, it is vital that the U.S. accelerates its modern-ization of the American workforce and addresses critical shortages of both trade and skilled workers in advanced manufacturing, energy, and related emerging technology fields like AI by improving current educational pathways and training infrastructures.

To that end, in support of President Trump’s unprecedented trade agreement with Japan and others being announced as part of his historic visit to Asia earlier this fall, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) proposes a new, transformational initiative to renew American manufacturing, revitalize America’s energy dominance, and address the shortage of a trade and skilled workforce. More specifically, NSF outlines a bold investment of $100 million in the following activities:

1. Development of programs at universities to rapidly increase the graduation rate in

1 https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/10/28195/ engineering and science disciplines as well as trade spaces that can immediately con-tribute to the construction and operations of the recent and potentially future related announcements;

2. Modernization of career and technical education (CTE) preparation, emphasizing con-struction, manufacturing, industrial operations, high-tech apprenticeships and career placement opportunities in emerging technology fields;

3. Expansion of experiential and hands-on learning opportunities with industry and com-munity-based organizations for individuals from all professional and educational back-grounds to increase access and interest in energy, manufacturing, and emerging tech-nology pathways;

4. Design and dissemination of high-quality curricula, tools, modules, and training closely aligned to industry needs;

5. Creation of support services targeting prospective workforce talent;

6. Expansion of high-quality, short-term preparation programs to address teacher short-ages particularly in rural and remote areas;

7. Development and/or expansion of scholarship and/or fellowship programs for individu-als to pursue short-term certification, education, and/or training programs at community colleges; and

8. Creation and/or expansion of industry-education partnerships.

This initiative will advance a wide range of workforce development activities all across the U.S., addressing the shortage of both craft and skilled workers needed by domestic ad-vanced manufacturing, energy – including advanced energy/power generation, construc-tion, transmission, distribution, and storage – and related emerging technologies industries.

Through partnership with the private sector, this initiative will prepare over 100,000 Ameri-cans from a range of backgrounds and geographic locations across the U.S. to be ready for jobs in these and adjacent sectors on “day one.”

This new workforce development initiative will have, at a minimum, the following key goals:

• Set the “Gold Standard”: Deliver cutting-edge, industry-aligned education and training across all the needed education and training levels, as well as lifelong learning, ensuring the U.S. workforce has the skills to meet evolving industry needs. A key focus of this ini-tiative is on the skilled workforce, including technicians and practitioners. Other NSF in-vestments prepare individuals seeking to pursue jobs requiring more advanced degrees, including PhDs.

• Build World-Class Training Ecosystems: Establish and invest in regional consortia of the critical entities – private industry, two-year community colleges, trade schools, four-year universities, nonprofits, and government – leading to regional ecosystems that pro-vide the best delivery of training programs. These ecosystems will support the full range of training resources, including instructional material, teacher and faculty professional development, and experiential learning opportunities including internships and (certi-fied) apprenticeships.

• Strengthen Workforce Pathways: Determine in-demand occupations and skills, create and expand degree and certificate pathways as well as stackable credentials, and pro-vide up- and reskilling opportunities for veterans and mid-career workers. In other words, go beyond historic degrees such as Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees, to instead focus on the skills and competencies required to be effective in the emerging trade spaces.

• Modernize Education Infrastructure: Develop a digital system to share instructional materials, teacher and faculty professional development materials, and best practices widely.

• Enable Hands-On Training: Expand access to specialized equipment and facilities to prepare learners for manufacturing, design, and research jobs from day one.

• Scale Workforce Development Offerings: Educate and train 100,000 Americans through expanded outreach as well as evidence-based recruitment and retention prac-tices in key regions across the U.S.

• Invest in Educators: Strengthen teacher and faculty professional development and in-centivize hiring to expand capacity and effectiveness.

• Increase National Competitiveness and Security: Support a resilient domestic talent pipeline for critical advanced manufacturing occupations to reinforce economic and supply chain security.

• Ensure Accountability: Track learner and worker readiness, job placement, career align-ment, and retention, driving continuous improvement and national accountability.

• Optimize Investments: Prioritize funding for learner tuition, hands-on training, and the resources needed to facilitate these efforts, e.g., teacher and faculty professional devel-opment.

With this RFI, NSF is seeking input from interested parties across the nation on a range of issues related to addressing the workforce development challenges for these critical industries including:

• The best model(s) for meeting the workforce talent shortages for each of the industries outlined above;

• The types of training programs that have been proven to be most effective in each indus-try;

• The state of the current training programs (including numbers of trainers and organiza-tions) and hands-on training infrastructure (labs, shops, etc.);

• The national and/or regional extent of training programs needed for each industry;

• The types of entities that should be delivering these training programs;

• The optimal approach for industry participation to ensure the training programs are in-dustry-aligned; and

• The optimal approach for assessing the quality of these programs.

In up to two pages, responders are asked to offer approaches and other feedback on how NSF can best achieve the goals outlined above.

1. Please provide your own vision for developing a robust, nimble, and ambitious workforce development program in the industry of your choice related to the subject of this RFI.

Include:

a. The workforce needs spanning advanced manufacturing, energy, and related emerging technologies. Include training levels and job types, where the needs are located, how the needs are changing over time, and the gaps that exist in current workforce development activities.

b. The specific capabilities, resources, experiences, networks, and activities that your organization would bring to bear in developing and running a training ecosys-tem that would address the workforce talent needs.

c. How your organization would manage and coordinate training and workforce de-velopment activities across your region. Describe how your organization would coordinate activities and develop partnerships among higher education, commu-nity colleges, trade schools, preK-12 schools, Federal, State, and local workforce development organizations and economic development agencies, and industry to create an ecosystem to address the defined workforce needs in your industry and region.

d. How your organization would facilitate apprenticeships, internships, and/or other applied learning experiences in your industry and region.

e. How you would leverage existing and other new shared infrastructure to enable applied learning experiences in your industry.

f. How you would create and disseminate information to increase awareness of your industry, region, and career pathways.

g. The performance metrics for assessing progress and impact over time.

h. How your effort can be made sustainable after NSF funding is fully expended.

2. If you have feedback, questions, areas of concern, and/or suggestions on priority areas that should be addressed, including perspectives on the use of Other Transactions Au-thority, this is also an opportunity to provide that feedback, within the two-page limit noted above.

Respondents may wish to consider other NSF initiatives in framing their responses:

• The NSF-funded National Network for Microelectronics Education (NNME)2 is an exam-ple of the bold, collaborative consortia NSF seeks through this initiative to address the workforce gaps described above. Pursuant to a Congressional mandate, NSF launched the NNME to foster game-changing partnerships connecting education, industry, and in-novation to power the next generation of semiconductor talent.

• NSF advances workforce development through a range of other programs. For example, NSF invests in community and technical colleges through the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program3; regional consortia to foster experiential learning opportuni-ties through the Experiential Learning in Novel and Emerging Technologies (ExLENT) pro-gram4; and scholarships for low-income students to pursue degrees in technical fields through the Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S- STEM) program5; among others. As these initiatives may be relevant to respondents’ ap-proaches, respondents are encouraged to include them. Additionally, respondents are encouraged to read a recent NSF Roadmap for Workforce Development in Building Path-ways and Innovations for the Critical and Emerging Technology Workforce6, an actiona-ble agenda to invigorate and empower the ambition of all Americans to join the workforce in these fields.

Responses are optional (prospective proposers need not respond) but will help NSF gain a better understanding of the universe of organizations capable of and interested in develop-ing training programs that will effectively and efficiently advance the specific programmatic goals and objectives. Likewise, you may respond even if you do not plan to submit a future proposal.

2 https://nnme.org/ 3 https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/ate-advanced-technological-education 4 https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/exlent-experiential-learning-emerging-novel-technologies 5 https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/s-stem-nsf-scholarships-science-technology-engineering-mathematics 6 https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/tip-workforce-development-roadmap.pdf