The National Science Foundation has given $3.3 million to UC Santa Barbara and The University of Texas at El Paso to establish a materials science and engineering program that will focus on solar energy research.

The grant forges a partnership between The University of Texas and UCSB’s Materials Research Laboratory, according to a news release from the El Paso campus. The partnership means UCSB students will have the opportunity to study at the Texas campus, and vice versa. Faculty at the two campuses will be able to jointly teach advanced courses remotely to students at both locations, the school said.

The program provides “a wonderful opportunity for [University of Texas] scientists to interact closely with their counterparts at UCSB in exciting research and educational projects,” Luis Echegoyen, chair of the chemistry department at the Texas school and principal investigator for the award, said in a news release. “We are in this on a scientific parity basis.”

Craig Hawker, director of the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB and co-principal investigator for the award, said the partnership “will pursue research at the cutting-edge of photovoltaic materials research.”