DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY For more information about the Office of Science, go to Office of Science |
To DOE National Laboratories LAB 04-09
Scientific Discovery
SUMMARY: The Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) of the Office of Science
(SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hereby announces its interest in receiving
proposals for the development of scientific simulation codes needed to address complex
problems in fusion energy sciences. The goal is the creation of codes that achieve high
performance on a single node, scale to hundreds of nodes and thousands of processors,
and have the potential to be ported to future generations of high performance computers.
This announcement is focused on topical areas that are important to a burning plasma
physics experiment, such as ITER, and will contribute to establishing the scientific
foundation for an integrated fusion simulation in the future. Specific areas of interest
include:
More specific information on this Announcement is outlined in the Supplementary
Information section below.
DATES: Researchers are requested to submit a letter of intent by February 16, 2004.
This letter should include the name of the Principal Investigator(s)/project director, the
email address and address of the PI, the title of the project, the amount of funds requested,
and a one-page abstract. Letters of intent will be used to organize and expedite the merit
review process. Failure to submit such letters will not negatively effect a responsive
application submitted in a timely fashion. The letter of intent should be sent by E-mail to
john.sauter@science.doe.gov, and the subject line should state: Letter-of-Intent regarding
Program Announcement LAB 04-09.
Formal proposals submitted in response to this notice must be received by DOE no later
than 4:30 p.m., March 23, 2004. Electronic submission of formal proposals in PDF
format is encouraged.
ADDRESSES: Letters of Intent should be sent by E-mail to John Sauter at
john.sauter@science.doe.gov, and the subject line should state: Letter-of-Intent regarding
Program Announcement LAB 04-09.
Formal proposals, referencing Program Announcement LAB 04-09, should also be
submitted by E-mail to: John Sauter at john.sauter@science.doe.gov. If necessary,
proposals may be submitted on CD-ROM to John Sauter, U.S. Department of Energy,
Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, SC-55/Germantown Building, 1000 Independence
Avenue, SW, Washington DC 20585-1290. ATTN: Program Announcement LAB 04-09.
When submitting proposals by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, any commercial mail
delivery service, or when hand carried by the proposer, the following address must be
used: U.S. Department of Energy, Office Fusion Energy Sciences, SC-55, 19901
Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290, ATTN: Program Announcement
LAB 04-09.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Stephen Eckstrand or Dr. Arnold
Kritz, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, SC-55/Germantown Building, U.S. Department
of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20585-1290. Telephone
numbers and e-mail addresses are listed below:
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing
Beyond the scientific computing and computational science research embedded in the
Office of Science (SC) core research programs, SC invests in a portfolio of coordinated
research efforts directed at exploiting the emerging capabilities of terascale and petascale
computing under the collective title of Scientific Discovery through Advanced
Computing (SciDAC). The research projects in the SciDAC portfolio respond to the
extraordinary difficulties of realizing sustained peak performance for scientific
applications, such as simulating combustion, making multi-century climate predictions,
understanding and controlling a burning plasma, and designing new particle accelerators,
that require terascale and petascale capabilities to accomplish their research goals. In
recognition of these difficulties, the SciDAC research projects are collaborative efforts
involving teams of physical scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and
computational scientists working on major software and algorithm development for
problems in the core research programs of the Office of Science. Research funded in the
SciDAC portfolio is enabling teams of laboratory and university researchers to solve
some of the most challenging scientific problems in the core programs of the Office of
Science at a level of accuracy and detail never before achieved. A complete description
of the SciDAC program can be found at:
http://www.osti.gov/scidac/.
Background: Advanced Simulation of Fusion Plasmas
In January 2003 the President announced that the United States would seek join ITER
negotiations, and the United States has subsequently done so. ITER is an ambitious
international research project to harness the promise of fusion energy. Following this
announcement, the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences decided to focus its part of the
SciDAC program on burning plasma physics needs. Accordingly, the new and renewal
proposals for the fusion SciDAC program will concentrate on developing reliable
computational modeling capabilities for dealing with burning plasma physics issues
relevant to ITER and on establishing the scientific groundwork for an integrated fusion
simulation project. Such a project is needed to develop the predictive capability
necessary to improve experimental planning for ITER and enhance scientific
understanding gained from the operation of ITER.
The scope and complexity of these projects will require close collaboration among
researchers from the computational and theoretical plasma physics, computer science and
applied mathematics disciplines. Thus, this solicitation calls for the creation of topical
centers as the organizational basis for a successful proposal. A topical center is a multi-
institutional, multi-disciplinary team that will:
Partnerships among universities, national laboratories, and industry are encouraged.
Collaborations between computational plasma physicists, applied mathematicians and
computer scientists are also encouraged. Researchers may request designated funding for
associated applied mathematics or computer science work that is needed to support the
development of the scientific application codes as part of Scientific Application
Partnership Program.
Proposals are being sought in the following four topical areas:
2. Turbulence and Transport:
Proposals for studies of microturbulence and transport of energy, particles and
momentum need to address key scientific problems, such as 1) Bohm versus gyro-
Bohm scaling and the transition between the two regimes, 2) transport barrier
formation and dynamics including the different transport channels, 3) statistics of
mesoscale intermittency in transport (e.g., avalanches), 4) the dynamics of transport
perturbation events such as heat pulse propagation, and 5) electromagnetic turbulence
and electron heat transport due to magnetic perturbations.
3. Boundary Layer/Edge Plasma Modeling:
Proposals related to edge modeling should address scientific issues such as 1)
evolution of the edge transport barrier including the mechanism for L-H mode
transition, transport within the edge barrier, the trigger mechanism for ELM crashes,
the frequency of ELM crashes, and the plasma energy, density and current lost during
each ELM crash, 2) effects associated with the scrape-off layer, diverter and plasma
wall interaction including plasma convective transport to the wall, neutral recycling,
wall erosion, and inward impurity transport from the wall.
4. Electromagnetic Wave/Plasma Interaction:
Proposals related to the role of radio frequency waves in burning plasmas need to
address topics such as 1) wave-plasma interactions in plasmas with a large energetic
alpha particle population and in plasmas with a radio frequency driven high velocity
tail population, 2) the role of non-inductive currents and energetic particle populations
on MHD equilibrium and instabilities in burning plasmas, such as the effects of
localized radio frequency currents or heating on island formation in neoclassical
tearing modes, sawtooth oscillations and disruptions, 3) the effect of radio frequency
on the control of turbulence and transport barrier formation due to localized heating,
current drive, or radio frequency driven plasma flows, and 4) the effect of the plasma
edge on the antenna and the ability to launch radio frequency waves in burning
plasma experiments.
Collaboration and Coordination
It is expected that all proposals submitted in response to this notice will be for
collaborative centers involving more than one institution. Each institution involved in a
proposed collaborative research project must submit a separate proposal, identifying the
co-PI who has responsibility for the project research carried out at that institution. Also,
each institution must include a separate face page and budget page for the institution.
These collaborative research proposals must include a common technical description of
the overall research project, but must also specify the distinct scope of the work that will
be carried out at each institution. The primary PI for the collaborative research project
should include a summary budget for the entire project, including annual funding
proposed for each institution and the annual funding proposed for Scientific Application
Partnership Program activities. Synergistic collaborations with researchers at other
federal laboratories, universities, industry, and non-profit organizations are encouraged.
Further information on preparation of collaborative proposals is available in the
Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program that is
available via the Internet at:
http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/Colab.html.
Since each center will be developing new physics models and computational tools that are
needed for an integrated fusion simulation capability, it is important that there be good
communication between the different centers. It is also important to have guidance on
code capabilities and development priorities from the broader fusion, scientific and
computational communities. Thus, all successful projects should plan to work with the
SciDAC management structure established by the Office of Science and the Office of
Fusion Energy Sciences at the beginning of the SciDAC program. The SC SciDAC
management team holds an annual principal investigators meeting to ensure good
communication between the SciDAC applications projects and the SciDAC applied
mathematics and computer science projects. The Office of Fusion Energy Sciences
oversight of the fusion SciDAC projects includes a program advisory committee, which
holds an annual coordination meeting to review the progress of each of the fusion
SciDAC projects and to develop priorities for future work.
Program Funding
Approximately $1,700,000 of Fiscal Year 2004 funding will be available for awards in
FY 2004. Additional funding for the proposed project may be available through the
Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research Scientific Application Partnership
Program for closely related research in computer science and/or applied mathematics.
Proposals may request support for up to three years, with out-year support contingent on
the availability of funds and satisfactory progress. To support multi- disciplinary, multi-
institutional efforts, annual funding levels of up to $1 million may be requested for the
scientific application work and up to $200,000 per year for the Scientific Application
Partnership Program work. Since these projects are expected to be multi-institution and
multi-disciplinary projects, awards under this announcement would range from $100,000
to $400,000 per participating institution.
Submission Information
The Project Description must be 25 pages or less, exclusive of attachments. It must
contain an abstract or project summary on a separate page with the name of the principal
investigator, mailing address, phone, FAX, and email listed. The proposal must include
letters of intent from non-funded collaborators (briefly describing the intended
contribution of each to the research), and short curriculum vitae for the principal
investigator and any co-PIs.
The instructions and format described below should be followed. Reference Program
Announcement LAB 04-09 on all submissions and inquiries about this program.
GUIDE FOR PREPARATION OF SCIENTIFIC/TECHNICAL PROPOSALS TO BE SUBMITTED BY NATIONAL LABORATORIES Proposals from National Laboratories submitted to the Office of Science (SC) as a result of this program announcement will follow the Department of Energy Field Work Proposal process with additional information requested to allow for scientific/technical merit review. The following guidelines for content and format are intended to facilitate an understanding of the requirements necessary for SC to conduct a merit review of a proposal. Please follow the guidelines carefully, as deviations could be cause for declination of a proposal without merit review. 1. Evaluation Criteria Proposals will be subjected to scientific merit review (peer review) and will be evaluated against the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of importance:
2. Appropriateness of the proposed method or approach; 3. Competency of the applicant's personnel and adequacy of the proposed resources; and 4. Reasonableness and appropriateness of the proposed budget.
b) The potential of the proposed project to advance the state-of-the-art in computational modeling and simulation of plasma behavior; and c) The need for extraordinary computing resources to address problems of critical scientific importance to the fusion program and the demonstrated abilities of the applicants to use terascale computers.
b) Soundness of the plan for effective management of the project; c) Quality of plan for ensuring communication with math and computer science projects and with other relevant SciDAC projects; d) Viability of plan for verifying and validating the models developed, including close coupling with experiments for ultimate validation; and e) Quality and clarity of proposed work schedule and deliverables. The evaluation will also include program policy factors such as the relevance of the proposed research to the terms of the announcement, the uniqueness of the proposer's capabilities, and prior performance on DOE funded work. 2. Summary of Proposal Contents
Proposal Cover Page Table of Contents Abstract Narrative Literature Cited Budget and Budget Explanation Other support of investigators Biographical Sketches Description of facilities and resources Appendix Formal proposals submitted in response to this notice must be received by DOE no later than 4:30 p.m., March 23, 2004. Electronic submission of formal proposals in PDF format is encouraged. 3. Detailed Contents of the Proposal Proposals must be readily legible, when photocopied, and must conform to the following three requirements: the height of the letters must be no smaller than 10 point with at least 2 points of spacing between lines (leading); the type density must average no more than 17 characters per inch; the margins must be at least one-half inch on all sides. Figures, charts, tables, figure legends, etc., may include type smaller than these requirements so long as they are still fully legible. 3.1 Field Work Proposal Format (Reference DOE Order 5700.7C) (DOE ONLY) The Field Work Proposal (FWP) is to be prepared and submitted consistent with policies of the investigator's laboratory and the local DOE Operations Office. Additional information is also requested to allow for scientific/technical merit review. Laboratories may submit proposals directly to the SC Program office listed above. A copy should also be provided to the appropriate DOE operations office. 3.2 Proposal Cover Page The following proposal cover page information may be placed on plain paper. No form is required.
SC Program announcement title Name of laboratory Name of principal investigator (PI) Position title of PI Mailing address of PI Telephone of PI Fax number of PI Electronic mail address of PI Name of official signing for laboratory* Title of official Fax number of official Telephone of official Electronic mail address of official Requested funding for each year; total request Use of human subjects in proposed project:
Signature of official, date of signature* *The signature certifies that personnel and facilities are available as stated in the proposal, if the project is funded. Provide the initial page number for each of the sections of the proposal. Number pages consecutively at the bottom of each page throughout the proposal. Start each major section at the top of a new page. Do not use unnumbered pages and do not use suffices, such as 5a, 5b. 3.4 Abstract Provide an abstract of no more than 250 words. Give the broad, long-term objectives and what the specific research proposed is intended to accomplish. State the hypotheses to be tested. Indicate how the proposed research addresses the SC scientific/technical area specifically described in this announcement. 3.5 Narrative The narrative comprises the research plan for the project and is limited to 5 pages per task. It should contain the following subsections: Background and Significance: Briefly sketch the background leading to the present proposal, critically evaluate existing knowledge, and specifically identify the gaps which the project is intended to fill. State concisely the importance of the research described in the proposal. Explain the relevance of the project to the research needs identified by the Office of Science. Include references to relevant published literature, both to work of the investigators and to work done by other researchers. Preliminary Studies: Use this section to provide an account of any preliminary studies that may be pertinent to the proposal. Include any other information that will help to establish the experience and competence of the investigators to pursue the proposed project. References to appropriate publications and manuscripts submitted or accepted for publication may be included. Research Design and Methods: Describe the research design and the procedures to be used to accomplish the specific aims of the project. Describe new techniques and methodologies and explain the advantages over existing techniques and methodologies. As part of this section, provide a tentative sequence or timetable for the project. Subcontract or Consortium Arrangements: If any portion of the project described under "Research Design and Methods" is to be done in collaboration with another institution, provide information on the institution and why it is to do the specific component of the project. Further information on any such arrangements is to be given in the sections "Budget and Budget Explanation", "Biographical Sketches", and "Description of Facilities and Resources". 3.6 Literature Cited List all references cited in the narrative. Limit citations to current literature relevant to the proposed research. Information about each reference should be sufficient for it to be located by a reviewer of the proposal. 3.7 Budget and Budget Explanation A detailed budget is required for the entire project period, which normally will be three years, and for each fiscal year. It is preferred that DOE's budget page, Form 4620.1 be used for providing budget information*. Modifications of categories are permissible to comply with institutional practices, for example with regard to overhead costs. A written justification of each budget item is to follow the budget pages. For personnel this should take the form of a one-sentence statement of the role of the person in the project. Provide a detailed justification of the need for each item of permanent equipment. Explain each of the other direct costs in sufficient detail for reviewers to be able to judge the appropriateness of the amount requested. Further instructions regarding the budget are given in section 4 of this guide. * Form 4620.1 is available at web site: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/Forms-E.html 3.8 Other Support of Investigators Other support is defined as all financial resources, whether Federal, non-Federal, commercial or institutional, available in direct support of an individual's research endeavors. Information on active and pending other support is required for all senior personnel, including investigators at collaborating institutions to be funded by a subcontract. For each item of other support, give the organization or agency, inclusive dates of the project or proposed project, annual funding, and level of effort devoted to the project. 3.9 Biographical Sketches This information is required for senior personnel at the laboratory submitting the proposal and at all subcontracting institutions. The biographical sketch is limited to a maximum of two pages for each investigator. 3.10 Description of Facilities and Resources Describe briefly the facilities to be used for the conduct of the proposed research. Indicate the performance sites and describe pertinent capabilities, including support facilities (such as machine shops) that will be used during the project. List the most important equipment items already available for the project and their pertinent capabilities. Include this information for each subcontracting institution, if any. 3.11 Appendix Include collated sets of all appendix materials with each copy of the proposal. Do not use the appendix to circumvent the page limitations of the proposal. Information should be included that may not be easily accessible to a reviewer. Reviewers are not required to consider information in the Appendix, only that in the body of the proposal. Reviewers may not have time to read extensive appendix materials with the same care as they will read the proposal proper. The appendix may contain the following items: up to five publications, manuscripts (accepted for publication), abstracts, patents, or other printed materials directly relevant to this project, but not generally available to the scientific community; and letters from investigators at other institutions stating their agreement to participate in the project (do not include letters of endorsement of the project).
4. Detailed Instructions for the Budget 4.1 Salaries and Wages List the names of the principal investigator and other key personnel and the estimated number of person-months for which DOE funding is requested. Proposers should list the number of postdoctoral associates and other professional positions included in the proposal and indicate the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) person-months and rate of pay (hourly, monthly or annually). For graduate and undergraduate students and all other personnel categories such as secretarial, clerical, technical, etc., show the total number of people needed in each job title and total salaries needed. Salaries requested must be consistent with the institution's regular practices. The budget explanation should define concisely the role of each position in the overall project. 4.2 Equipment DOE defines equipment as "an item of tangible personal property that has a useful life of more than two years and an acquisition cost of $25,000 or more." Special purpose equipment means equipment which is used only for research, scientific or other technical activities. Items of needed equipment should be individually listed by description and estimated cost, including tax, and adequately justified. Allowable items ordinarily will be limited to scientific equipment that is not already available for the conduct of the work. General purpose office equipment normally will not be considered eligible for support. 4.3 Domestic Travel The type and extent of travel and its relation to the research should be specified. Funds may be requested for attendance at meetings and conferences, other travel associated with the work and subsistence. In order to qualify for support, attendance at meetings or conferences must enhance the investigator's capability to perform the research, plan extensions of it, or disseminate its results. Consultant's travel costs also may be requested. 4.4 Foreign Travel Foreign travel is any travel outside Canada and the United States and its territories and possessions. Foreign travel may be approved only if it is directly related to project objectives. 4.5 Other Direct Costs The budget should itemize other anticipated direct costs not included under the headings above, including materials and supplies, publication costs, computer services, and consultant services (which are discussed below). Other examples are: aircraft rental, space rental at research establishments away from the institution, minor building alterations, service charges, and fabrication of equipment or systems not available off- the-shelf. Reference books and periodicals may be charged to the project only if they are specifically related to the research. a. Materials and Supplies The budget should indicate in general terms the type of required expendable materials and supplies with their estimated costs. The breakdown should be more detailed when the cost is substantial. b. Publication Costs/Page Charges The budget may request funds for the costs of preparing and publishing the results of research, including costs of reports, reprints page charges, or other journal costs (except costs for prior or early publication), and necessary illustrations. c. Consultant Services Anticipated consultant services should be justified and information furnished on each individual's expertise, primary organizational affiliation, daily compensation rate and number of days expected service. Consultant's travel costs should be listed separately under travel in the budget. d. Computer Services The cost of computer services, including computer-based retrieval of scientific and technical information, may be requested. A justification based on the established computer service rates should be included. e. Subcontracts Subcontracts should be listed so that they can be properly evaluated. There should be an anticipated cost and an explanation of that cost for each subcontract. The total amount of each subcontract should also appear as a budget item. 4.6 Indirect Costs Explain the basis for each overhead and indirect cost. Include the current rates.
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