Industrial Affiliates Programs
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Industrial Affiliates Programs at Stanford provide a mechanism for multiple faculty and multiple companies to discuss and explore broad research topics in a pre-competitive environment.
Affiliates Programs follow shared guidelines that govern member access to Stanford scholars and ensure academic freedom. Typical membership benefits include invitations to meetings and workshops, opportunities to engage with program faculty and students, opportunities to recruit students, and invitations to send visiting scholars.
About the Industrial Affiliates Programs Guidelines FAQs
Read news about discoveries and innovations by affiliate programs
2022 affiliate program funding 2022 affiliate program projects 2023 affiliate program funding
Industrial Affiliates Review Committee report
In February 2024, Vice Provost and Dean of Research David Studdert and Dean Majumdar announced the formation of the Industrial Affiliates Review Committee (IARC) in response to student recommendations related to the university’s engagement with fossil fuel companies. The committee was charged with assessing the school’s industrial affiliates programs (IAPs) along with recommendations to improve their transparency and administration. They released their report in August 2024.
| Industrial Affiliates Program | Income | Affiliate Members | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basin Processes and Subsurface Modeling Understanding of subsurface rock and fluid systems and their interactions by integrating data and models from across geoscience disciplines to identify controlling processes and quantify uncertainties. | FY23: $259,400 | Basin Processes and Subsurface Modeling affiliate members | |
| Mineral X Technological innovations to create a resilient mineral supply chain to achieve clean, renewable energy. | FY23: No Funding | Mineral X affiliate members | |
| Natural Gas Initiative Ways to prevent fugitive emissions of natural gas (there has been a shift in emphasis in this IAP away from natural gas production and use to prevention of emissions and the role of natural gas in future energy markets). | FY23: $930,000 | Natural Gas Initiative affiliate members | |
| Smart Fields Consortium Computational optimization, data assimilation, uncertainty quantification, and data interpretation for reservoir management and carbon storage operations. | FY23: $299,985 | Smart Fields Consortium affiliate members | |
| Stanford Center for Carbon Storage Flow physics, monitoring, geochemistry, geomechanics, and simulation of the transport and fate of CO2 stored in the subsurface. | FY23: $500,000 | Stanford Center for Carbon Storage affiliate members | |
| Stanford Center for Earth Resources Forecasting Developing state-of-the-art methods for integration of spatial data over many scales, quantification of uncertainty in subsurface systems (there has been a shift from geostatistics of oil and gas reservoir description to broader applications of variability in the subsurface). | FY23: $410,000 | Stanford Center for Earth Resources Forecasting affiliate members | |
| Stanford Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity Managing the risk posed by induced earthquakes due to fluid injection, hydraulic fracturing, injection of CO2, wastewater disposal, fluid extraction and mining activities. | FY23: $150,000 | Stanford Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity affiliate members | |
| Stanford Earth Sciences Algorithms and Architectures Initiative Computational technologies to use high performance computing to allow development of subsurface digital twins that couple advanced modeling with data flow from moder fiber-sensing systems. | FY23: $80,000 | Stanford Earth Sciences Algorithms and Architectures Initiative affiliate members | |
| Stanford Earth imaging Project Improve the theory and practice of estimating three-dimensional and time-lapse Earth models from active and passive seismic data (there has been a shift from oil and gas exploration to broader characterization of the subsurface for the energy transition). | FY23: $715,000 | Stanford Earth imaging Project affiliate members | |
| Stanford Rocks and Geomaterials Project Physical properties and processes of rocks and geomaterials under various states of stress, temperature, and fluid content combining lab measurements, geologic concepts, theory, and numerical simulations to build predictive models of physical behavior. | FY23: $51,000 | No current affiliates | |
| SUETRI-A:Subsurface Engineering for the Energy Transition Subsurface engineering of storage formations for carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2), chemical and mechanical and chemical durability of formation seals, mechanical response of formations to injection, and CO2 utilization including enhanced oil recovery. | FY23: $239,955 | SUETRI-A:Subsurface Engineering for the Energy Transition affiliate members | |
| SUETRI-B: Stanford University Energy Transition Research Institute Development of advanced numerical techniques for subsurface reservoir simulation. | FY23: $329,985 | SUETRI-B: Stanford University Energy Transition Research Institute affiliate members | |
| SUETRI-D: Research Consortium on Innovation in Energy Systems Monitoring and Testing Innovative well test interpretation techniques that make use of data from downhole gauges, temperature transients and distributed temperature measurements, and analysis of big data (now includes the former SUPRI-Tides IAP that investigates response of CO2 sequestration and geothermal to Earth tides, and the former Stanford Geothermal IAP that investigates geothermal energy production). | FY23: $139,975 | SUETRI-D: Research Consortium on Innovation in Energy Systems Monitoring and Testing affiliate members | |
| SUPRI-Tides: Analysis of Earth Tides Research collaboration to explore the behavior of Earth tides and how the collected data expands understanding of the physical properties of the Earth. | FY23: $20,000 | SUPRI-Tides: Analysis of Earth Tides affiliate members | |
| Stanford Energy Corporate Affiliates This was an umbrella pass-through vehicle for companies to support several Precourt Institute for Energy initiatives with one gift. That arrangement has now been modified to require companies to join the individual initiatives (see below) directly. It will end when all the following separate initiatives have been fully approved and remaining funds transferred. | FY23: $3,471,450 | ||
| - Bits & Watts Initiative Research innovations for the 21st century electric grid. | Bits and Watts Initiative affiliate members | ||
| - Hydrogen Initiative Decarbonization of energy systems through the use of H2. | Hydrogen Initiative affiliate members | ||
| - StorageX Initiative Research to provide new energy storage technologies and concepts. | StorageX Initiative affiliate members | ||
| - Sustainable Finance Initiative Design deployable economic and financial solutions that unlock capital required to transition to a decarbonize and climate resilient global economy. |