A US$25-million gift will help to create the Energy Sciences Institute, the latest of six research centres forming Yale University's West Campus outside New Haven, Connecticut. The gift from Yale graduate Thomas Steyer and his wife, Kathryn Taylor, announced on 13 September, will support the hiring of a director and the first of eight researchers. Recruitment continues at the other five centres, each of which has a different biological focus. Possible research areas for the Energy Sciences Institute are biofuels and materials science. “This is about as clean a slate as you can get in academics,” says Scott Strobel, Yale's vice-president overseeing the West Campus development.