New sector-based partnerships formed in response to Request for Proposals
Expert firm will help to measure and evaluate
the economic impact of the new job-training initiatives
PITTSBURGH – (June 4, 2025) – The Richard King Mellon Foundation has awarded $2.64 million in grants to fund new sector-based job-training partnerships, as part of a novel initiative to train local workers for the family-sustaining job opportunities in Pittsburgh’s growing emerging industries – industries such as advanced manufacturing; artificial intelligence; biomanufacturing and the life sciences; cybersecurity; green and renewable energy industries; robotics and the space industry.
The growth of these emerging industries is one of the most hopeful opportunities in the Greater Pittsburgh economy. Throughout its history, the Richard King Mellon Foundation has focused on seeding and supporting emerging industries and the successes in recent years have been considerable. But now a companion challenge sits squarely before the region: to assure there is a well-prepared workforce, trained to perform the highly specialized work required in these emerging industries, and ready to seize the many good, family-sustaining jobs these industries already are creating.
These are jobs that do not necessarily require a Ph.D. or even a college degree. But the rewards for people who win such jobs are meaningful, with starting salaries ranging from $40,000 to more than $100,000 a year.
“Working with so many partners, we together have made great progress in enabling these emerging industries to take root in Pittsburgh,” said Foundation Director Sam Reiman. “But those industries only will flourish if we are just as serious about creating the sector-based partnerships that will produce the trained workforce these emerging industries need.”
The Foundation issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) last August to solicit grant proposals for such training. The RFP required applicants to build partnerships with emerging industry companies, to assure the job-training efforts would be tailored to emerging-industry needs.
The five largest grants awarded through the RFP are:
Catalyst Connection – $675,000 – to establish an advanced-manufacturing, sector-based partnership. The new partnership will expand existing pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs and design three new programs. Partners will include local manufacturers, the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy and the Community College of Allegheny County. The Catalyst Connection partnership will seek to engage 50 manufacturing companies and 300 apprentices, as well as 20 schools, in manufacturing pre-apprenticeship programs that will seek to enroll 200 high school students.
Partner4Work – $500,000 – to create a scalable model for workforce training in advanced manufacturing, with the goal of training 2,500 individuals a year by 2030, and 5,500 workers a year by 2035. Partner4Work also expects to develop and pilot three training demonstration projects to train a minimum of 500 people. Partners include companies such as Mainspring Energy, ElevateBio, Corepower, EOS and Re:Build, as well as the Community College of Allegheny County and the Digital Foundry in New Kensington.
University of Pittsburgh School of Education – $497,000 – to design education and job-training pathways for jobs in the life sciences, including educational certificates and credentials that align with the skills needed in the industry. The Pitt BioForge at Hazelwood Green would be the focal point for the project, and the School of Education will partner with anchor tenant ElevateBio, and other life-science companies, as well as the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Alliance, to ensure the proposed pathways align closely with industry needs.
University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security – $308,000 – to create a regional Cyber Hub to position Southwestern Pennsylvania as a national leader in workforce development in the rapidly growing career field of cybersecurity. Federal labor data projects a 33 percent growth in information security analyst jobs nationally by 2031. The Cyber Hub will include partnerships with InnovatePGH, the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Pittsburgh Technology Council.
Washington Greene County Job Training Agency – $300,000 – to implement a partnership in advanced manufacturing with a focus on the steel industry supply chain in the Monongahela Valley. The Agency expects to partner with the Southwest Corner Workforce Development Board, the Pennsylvania Steel Alliance and a minimum of 10 Mon Valley steel supply-chain businesses and community organizations to deliver training on the advanced technologies utilized in the industry to at least 100 participants, and also to engage 20 Mon Valley youth in experiential learning opportunities.
The Catalyst Connection grant was awarded in December 2024. The Partner4Work grant, the two University of Pittsburgh grants and the Washington Greene County Job Training Agency grants were awarded in April 2025. Each of the grants is for an 18-month initiative, except for the Washington Greene County grant (15 months).
To support the success of the awarded projects, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is partnering with a third-party evaluator to assess the economic impact of the grants.
The Foundation has engaged with TEConomy Partners, a consulting firm specializing in technology-based economic development and impact assessment, to assist the Foundation with its evaluation of the success of the effort. TEConomy will seek to assess and enhance the success of these new emerging-industry sector-based partnerships; to identify opportunities and obstacles in the region’s emerging-industry ecosystem; and to measure the economic impacts of the seven grants.
“The stakes for the region are high, and the opportunities are great, so it is essential that we all are serious about results,” said Reiman. “So we are baking measurement and evaluation into the process from the start. I want to thank our grantees for sharing our eagerness for a rigorous impact-assessment component.”
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About the Richard King Mellon Foundation: Founded in 1947, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is the largest foundation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and one of the 50 largest in the world. The Foundation’s 2024 year-end net assets were $3.1 billion, and its Trustees in 2024 disbursed more than $155 million in grants and program-related investments. The Foundation focuses its funding on six primary program areas, delineated in its 2021-2030 Strategic Plan.