[Federal Register: December 6, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 235)]
[Notices]
[Page 72648-72650]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr06de02-44]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice 03-11:
Early Career Principal Investigator Program in Applied Mathematics,
Collaboratory Research, Computer Science, and High-Performance Networks
AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) of
the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby
announces its interest in receiving applications for grants in support
of its Early Career Principal Investigator Program. The purpose of this
program is to support research in applied mathematics, collaboratory
research, computer science, and networks performed by exceptionally
talented scientists and engineers early in their careers. The full text
of Program Notice 03-11 is available via the Internet using the
following Web site address: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html
.
DATES: To permit timely consideration for award in Fiscal Year 2003,
completed applications in response to this notice must be received by
February 20, 2003, to be accepted for merit review and funding in
Fiscal Year 2003.
ADDRESSES: Formal applications in response to this solicitation are to
be electronically submitted by an authorized institutional business
official through DOE's Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS)
at: http://e-center.doe.gov/. IIPS provides for the posting of
solicitations and receipt of applications in a paperless environment
via the Internet. In order to submit applications through IIPS, your
business official will need to register at the IIPS Web site. The
Office of Science will include attachments as part of this notice that
provide the appropriate forms in PDF fillable format that are to be
submitted through IIPS. Color images should be submitted in IIPS as a
separate file in PDF format and identified as such. These images should
be kept to a minimum due to the limitations of reproducing them. They
should be numbered and referred to in the body of the technical
scientific grant application as Color image 1, Color image 2, etc.
Questions regarding the operation of IIPS may be e-mailed to the IIPS
Help Desk at: HelpDesk@e-center.doe.gov, or you may call the help desk
at: (800) 683-0751. Further information on the use of IIPS by the
Office of Science is available at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html
If you are unable to submit an application through IIPS, please
contact the Office of the Director, Grants and Contracts Division,
Office of Science, DOE at: (301) 903-5212 in order to gain assistance
for submission through IIPS or to receive special approval and
instructions on how to submit printed applications.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Samuel J. Barish, Office of
Advanced Scientific Computing Research, SC-31/Germantown Building, U.S.
Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC
20585-1290, telephone: (301) 903-5800, e-mail:
sam.barish@science.doe.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Program Mission
The primary mission of the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing
Research, which is carried out by the Mathematical, Information, and
Computational Sciences (MICS) Division, is to discover, develop, and
deploy the computational and networking tools that enable researchers
in the scientific disciplines to analyze, model, simulate, and predict
complex physical, chemical, and biological phenomena important to DOE.
To accomplish this mission, the MICS Division fosters and supports
fundamental research in advanced scientific computing applied
mathematics, collaboratory research, computer science, and networking--
and operates supercomputers, a high performance network, and related
facilities. Further descriptions of the base research portion of the
MICS portfolio, which is the scope of this Notice, is provided below.
Applied Mathematical Sciences Research
The objective of the applied mathematics component of the MICS
research portfolio is to support research on the underlying
mathematical understanding as well as the numerical algorithms needed
to enable effective description and prediction of physical, chemical,
and biological systems such as fluids, materials, magnetized plasmas,
or protein molecules. This includes, but is not limited to, methods for
solving large systems of partial differential equations on parallel
computers, techniques for choosing optimal values for parameters in
large systems with hundreds to hundreds of thousands of parameters,
improving our understanding of fluid turbulence, and developing
techniques for reliably estimating the errors in simulations of complex
physical phenomena.
In addition to the existing research topics described, MICS plans
to invest in new areas of applied mathematics research to support DOE's
mission. Such investments may include research in multiscale
algorithms, the mathematics of feature identification in large
datasets, asymptotically optimal algorithms for solving PDEs, fast
multipole and related hybrid methods, and algorithms for handling
complex systems with constraints. The MICS research portfolio in
Applied Mathematics emphasizes investment in long-term research that
will result in the next generation of computational tools for
scientific discovery.
Collaboratory Research
Collaboratories link geographically dispersed researchers, data,
and tools via high performance networks to enable remote access to
facilities, access to large datasets, shared environments, and ease of
collaboration. The objective of the collaboratory component of the MICS
portfolio is to support research for developing the software
infrastructure that will enable universal, ubiquitous, easy access to
remote resources or that will contribute to the ease with which
distributed teams work together. Enabling high performance for
distributed scientific applications is an important consideration. The
middleware component for collaboratories encompasses activities in
[sbull] Building the application frameworks that allow discipline
scientists to express and manage the simulation, analysis, and data
management aspects of overall problem solving
[[Page 72649]]
[sbull] Supporting construction, management, and use of widely
distributed application systems
[sbull] Facilitating human collaboration through common security
services, and resource and data sharing
[sbull] Providing remote access to, and operation of, scientific
and engineering instrumentation systems.
[sbull] Managing and securing the computing and data infrastructure
as a persistent service.
This announcement also calls for grant applications to address the
fundamental issues involved in providing uniform software services that
manage and provide access to heterogeneous, distributed resources, that
is, high-performance middleware services that support DOE's science
mission. The emphasis is on investment in long-term research that will
result in the next generation of high-performance software
infrastructure for scientific discovery.
Computer Science Research
The objective of the computer science component of the MICS
research portfolio is to support research that results in a
comprehensive, scalable, and robust high performance software
infrastructure that translates the promise and potential of high peak
performance to real performance improvements in DOE scientific
applications. This software infrastructure must address needs for:
Portability and interoperability of complex high performance scientific
software packages; operating systems tools and support for the
effective management of terascale and beyond systems; and effective
tools for feature identification, data management, and visualization of
petabyte-scale scientific data sets. The Computer Science component
encompasses a multi-discipline approach with activities in:
[sbull] Program development environments and tools--Component-
based, fully integrated, terascale program development and runtime
tools, which scale effectively and provide maximum performance,
functionality, and ease-of-use to developers and scientific end users.
[sbull] Operating system software and tools--Systems software that
scales to tens of thousands of processors, supports high performance
application-level communication, and provides the highest levels of
performance, fault tolerance, reliability, manageability, and ease of
use for system administrators, tool developers, and end users.
[sbull] Visualization and data management systems--Scalable,
intuitive systems fully supportive of DOE application requirements for
moving, storing, analyzing, querying, manipulating, and visualizing
multi-petabytes of scientific data and objects.
[sbull] Problem Solving Environments--Unified systems focused on
the needs of specific scientific applications, which enable radically
improved ease-of-use of complex systems software and tools by domain
application scientists.
The MICS research portfolio in Computer Science emphasizes
investment in long-term research that will result in the next
generation of high performance tools for scientific discovery.
High-Performance Networks Research
In the next few years, complex science experiments in DOE are
expected to generate several petabytes of data that will be transferred
to geographically distributed terascale computing facilities for
analysis and visualization by thousands of scientists across the world.
In addition, many emerging energy research problems require coordinated
access to distributed resources--people, data, computers, and
facilities. This emerging, distributed terascale-science environment
calls for ultra-high-speed networks--networks that can deliver multi-
gigabits/sec throughput to scientific applications securely. Grant
applications in network research must therefore address the issues of
ultra high-speed networks by focusing on:
[sbull] Ultra high-speed network protocols--radical new approaches
to ultra high-speed transport protocols that will outperform existing
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Designed Datagram (UDP) to
efficiently harness the abundant bandwidth made possible by Dense Wave
Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical technologies. This may include
transport mechanisms such as Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over
Lambda and OS-bypass over Lambda, that are capable of delivering and
sustaining multi-Gigabits/sec (Gbs) throughput to high-end scientific
applications.
[sbull] Intelligent high-speed network interfaces--to significantly
improve the end-to-end performance by addressing host system congestion
issues, such as dynamically programmed transport protocol off-loading,
OS bypass, electro-optical middleware, and high-speed I/O.
[sbull] High-speed cyber security systems--that operate efficiently
at ultra high-speed (2.5 Gbs and 10 Gbs). Such systems should be based
on a sound theoretical foundation and formal techniques, and in
addition could exploit Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, such as
fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms to improve their
effectiveness.
[sbull] Network modeling and traffic engineering--new techniques
for modeling and characterization of chaotic behaviors in complex
traffic patterns, dynamic behavior of protocols, cyber security
systems, and congestion control mechanisms.
Grant applications addressing the above problems must go beyond the
development of tools and emphasize mathematical analysis, formal
specification, and rigorous techniques for validating the performance
of their proposed solutions.
Background: Early Career Principal Investigator Program
This is the second year of the Early Career Principal Investigator
Program. A principal goal of this program is to identify exceptionally
talented applied mathematicians, collaboratory researchers, computer
scientists, and high-performance networks researchers early in their
careers and assist and facilitate the development of their research
programs. Eligibility for awards under this notice is restricted to
applicants who meet all of the following criteria:
(1) Hold a tenure-track regular academic faculty position.
(2) Have earned a Ph.D. degree or equivalent after July 1, 1998.
(3) Are conducting research in applied mathematics,
collaboratories, computer science, or high-performance networks.
Applications should be submitted through a U.S. academic
institution. Applicants should request support under this notice for
normal research project costs as required to conduct their proposed
research activities, such as part of the PI's salary, graduate and/or
undergraduate students, post-doctoral researchers, equipment and
facilities, and travel. However, no salary support will be provided for
other faculty members or senior personnel.
Applicants who have submitted or will be submitting similar grant
applications to other programs are eligible for this notice, as long as
the details of the other submission are contained in the grant
application to DOE. Applicants who have an NSF CAREER award, or are
applying for such an award, are eligible for this notice. Applicants do
not have to be U.S. citizens, and may be non-permanent resident aliens
or have an H1b visa.
Program Funding
It is anticipated that up to $2 million will be available for up to
twenty (20)
[[Page 72650]]
awards for exceptional applications in FY 2003 to meet the needs of the
program, contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds. The
maximum support that can be requested under this notice is $100,000 per
year for three years.
Multiple-year funding of grant awards is expected, with funding
provided on an annual basis subject to the availability of funds,
progress of the research, and programmatic needs. The typical duration
of these grants is three years, and they will not normally be renewed
after the project period has been completed. It is anticipated that at
the end of the grant period, grantees will submit new grant
applications to continue their research to DOE or other Federal funding
agencies. We expect that the awards will be announced and the projects
will begin in early summer 2003.
Merit Review
Applications will be subjected to scientific merit review (peer
review) and will be evaluated against the following evaluation
criteria, which are listed in descending order of importance as
codified at 10 CFR 605.10(d):
(1) Scientific and/or Technical Merit of the Project;
(2) Appropriateness of the Proposed Method or Approach;
(3) Competency of Applicant's Personnel and Adequacy of Proposed
Resources;
(4) Reasonableness and Appropriateness of the Proposed Budget.
The evaluation of applications under item 1, Scientific and
Technical Merit, will pay attention to the responsiveness of the
proposed research to the challenges of the MICS base research programs
in Applied Mathematics, Collaboratory Research, Computer Science, and
Network Research.
It is expected that the application will include involvement of
graduate and/or undergraduate students in the proposed work.
Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with DOE National
Laboratory researchers. The collaborations may include one, or more,
extended visits to the laboratory by the applicant each year. Such an
arrangement, if proposed, must be clearly explained in the grant
application. Furthermore, a letter of support from the DOE National
Laboratory collaborator(s) should be included with the application. A
list of the DOE National Laboratories can be found at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/sub/lab_map/index.htm
.
Grantees under the Early Career Principal Investigator Program may
apply for access to high-performance computing and network resources at
several National Laboratories. Such resources include, but are not
limited to, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC)
Center: http://www.sc.doe.gov/ascr/mics/nersc/index.html; the Advanced
Computing Research Testbeds http://www.sc.doe.gov/ascr/mics/acrt/index.html
; the Energy Sciences Network http://www.sc.doe.gov/ascr/
mics/esnet/index.html; and the High-Performance Networking Research
effort at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; http://www.csm.ornl.gov/net
.
The evaluation under item 2, Appropriateness of the Proposed Method
or Approach, will consider the quality of the proposed plan, if any,
for interacting with a DOE National Laboratory.
Please note that external peer reviewers are selected with regard
to both their scientific expertise in the subject area of the grant
application and the absence of conflict-of-interest issues. Non-federal
reviewers will often be used, and submission of an application
constitutes agreement that this is acceptable to the investigator and
the submitting institution.
Submission Information
Each grant application submitted should clearly indicate on which
of the four following components of the MICS research portfolio the
application is focused: Applied Mathematical Sciences Research,
Collaboratory Research, Computer Science Research, or High-Performance
Networks Research.
The Project Description should be 20 pages or less, exclusive of
the bibliography and other attachments. It must contain an abstract or
project summary on a separate page with the name of the applicant,
mailing address, phone, FAX and E-mail listed, and a short curriculum
vita for the applicant.
To provide a consistent format for the submission, review, and
solicitation of grant applications under this notice, the preparation
and submission of grant applications must follow the guidelines given
in the Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance
Program, 10 CFR part 605. Access to SC's Financial Assistance
Application Guide is possible via the World Wide Web at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.
DOE is under no
obligation to pay for any costs associated with the preparation or
submission of applications if an award is not made.
(The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number for this program
is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP 10 CFR part
605.)
Issued in Washington, DC on December 2, 2002.
John Rodney Clark,
Associate Director of Science for Resource Management.
[FR Doc. 02-30917 Filed 12-5-02; 8:45 am]
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