MIT and GE Vernova have announced the establishment of the MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance, aimed at advancing and expanding sustainable energy systems worldwide.
This partnership marks the commencement of a five-year collaboration between MIT and GE Vernova, a global energy firm that separated from General Electric’s energy division in 2024. The initiative will incorporate research, educational initiatives, and career opportunities for students, faculty, and staff across MIT’s five schools and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. It will concentrate on three primary themes: decarbonization, electrification, and the acceleration of renewables.
“This partnership will grant MIT students and researchers an extraordinary opportunity to tackle energy solutions that could effect substantial real-world change,” states Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer and dean of the School of Engineering. “GE Vernova contributes specialized knowledge and expertise in scaling these solutions. When our researchers devise new innovative technologies, GE Vernova is exceptionally positioned to introduce them into global markets.”
Through this collaboration, GE Vernova will sponsor research initiatives at MIT and offer financial support for MIT research fellowships. The company will also engage with the MIT community through involvement in corporate membership programs and professional education.
“It’s an honor to collaborate with MIT’s exceptional faculty and students as we unite to embrace an optimistic, innovation-oriented strategy for addressing the world’s most urgent challenges,” says Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova. “Through this partnership, we take pride in our ability to advance new technologies while simultaneously inspiring future leaders to significantly contribute to deploying technology for the betterment of the planet at firms like GE Vernova.”
“This partnership captures the essence of the MIT Climate Project — merging cutting-edge research, a collective ambition to confront today’s most difficult energy issues, and a profound sense of hope about our potential achievements together,” remarks Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT. “With the combined capabilities of MIT and GE Vernova, we possess a unique opportunity to achieve transformative advancements in the key areas of electrification, decarbonization, and the acceleration of renewables.”
The alliance, backed by a $50 million pledge, will function under MIT’s Office of Innovation and Strategy. It will support around 12 annual research projects tied to the three themes, in addition to three master’s student projects in MIT’s Technology and Policy Program. These research endeavors will tackle issues like developing and storing clean energy and creating robust system architectures that enable renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, advanced nuclear reactors, green hydrogen, and more to compete with fossil fuel sources.
The projects will be chosen by a joint steering committee comprising representatives from both MIT and GE Vernova, following an annual Institute-wide call for submissions.
The collaboration will also establish approximately eight endowed GE Vernova research fellowships for MIT students, selected by faculty beginning in the fall. Additionally, there will be 10 student internships covering GE Vernova’s global operations, and the company will sponsor programming through MIT’s New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET), which provides students with career-oriented experiential opportunities. Furthermore, the alliance will develop professional education offerings for GE Vernova employees.
“The internships and fellowships will be structured to immerse students in our ecosystem,” states GE Vernova Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Roger Martella. “Students will explore our manufacturing facilities, participate in our labs, integrate into our leadership teams, and observe how we operate as business leaders. They’ll gain insight into how the concepts they learn in the classroom translate into practical applications in the real world.”
Financial support from GE Vernova will also fund projects within MIT’s Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC), which was launched last autumn to enhance human-centered research and education. These projects will enable faculty to investigate how domains like energy and cybersecurity shape human behavior and experiences.
In relation to the alliance, GE Vernova is anticipated to join several MIT consortia and membership initiatives, facilitating collaborations and discussions between industry professionals and researchers and educators across campus.
With operations in over 100 countries, GE Vernova designs, fabricates, and maintains technologies for generating, transferring, and storing electricity, committed to the goal of decarbonizing the globe. The firm is located in Kendall Square, a short distance from MIT, which its leaders assert is no mere coincidence.
“We excel at taking validated technologies and commercializing them while scaling them through our laboratories,” Martella explains. “MIT is outstanding at generating those ideas and serves as a type of time machine that innovates to create the future. That’s why this collaboration is such a great match: We both share a dedication to research, innovation, and technology.”
This alliance is the latest in MIT’s rapidly expanding portfolio of research and innovation initiatives focused on sustainable energy systems, which also encompasses the Climate Project at MIT. While separate, but complementary to, the MIT-GE Vernova Alliance, the Climate Project represents a campus-wide effort to devise technological, behavioral, and policy solutions to some of the most formidable challenges hindering an effective global climate response.