How to Apply
Applications for 2017 ALCC are due 11:59 PM EST Wednesday February 01, 2017.
ALCC Applicants apply through an online system at https://apps.orau.gov/ALCC/Account/Login
. Application requirements for the online system are described below. A PDF of these instructions is available here
(172KB). For any questions please contact the ALCC program manager, Carolyn.Lauzon@science.doe.gov
Eligibility
- The proposed research should be in areas related to the DOE mission
- The proposed research results must be open and cannot contain proprietary information unless the project meets the criteria for the Industrial Partnership User Agreement. (Interested parties from industry should contact the “Contacts for Industry” here for more information).
Review Process
ALCC proposals undergo scientific merit reviews through a peer review process. The proposals are evaluated against the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of importance as codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 605.10) against the following criteria:
- Scientific and/or technical merit of the project (for ALCC, this includes relevance to the DOE mission)
- Appropriateness of the proposed method or approach
- Competency of applicant’s personnel and adequacy of proposed resources
- Reasonableness and appropriateness of the proposed allocation request
Included in Scientific and/or technical merit of the project is an evaluation of the project’s relevance and importance to the DOE mission.
Application Requirements
This Year:
[1] Four elements of the Proposal Narrative are now mandatory as indicated below (see Section 8). If your proposal does not include these elements, it may be rejected without peer review. [2] Applicants are asked to identify if their project is a Consortium/End-Station project (see Section 2). A consortium proposal, also called an end-station proposal, is a single allocation request for resources that will respond to the allocation needs of a group of Principle Investigators, research teams, or institutions. This group may be built around shared use of codes, shared scientific interests, or some other common use criteria. Most proposals are not consortium proposals. Consortium projects must include a management plan as part of the proposal narrative. Peer reviewers are notified if your project is a consortium project and are asked to adjust their comments accordingly. Additionally, peer reviewers will be asked to evaluate the management plan. [3] Application Content Agreement (see Section 11).
Overview
The online application is divided into 12 sections. Requirements for each section are described below. Note, the application includes three PDFs prepared separately by the applicant; Abstract (Section 7), Proposal Narrative (Section 8), and CV of application team (Section 9). If you are unable or have difficulty submitting a PDF, please contact the ALCC program manager, Carolyn.Lauzon@science.doe.gov.
To complete the online application, you will need the following information for each section (all items required unless indicated otherwise):
Section 1 – Team and Contacts
- Contact information for primary PI
- Name and affiliation of collaborators (if applicable)
- Institutional Contact Information – this is the agent who has the authority to sign the user agreement on behalf of your institution. The person may be someone in a contracts or procurement department, department head, or grants department.
Section 2 – Project Topic
- Project Title
- Consortium Proposal Identification – you must identify if your project is a consortium proposal. A consortium proposal, also called an end-station proposal, is a single allocation request for resources that will respond to the allocation needs of a group of Principle Investigators, research teams, or institutions. This group may be built around shared use of codes, shared scientific interests, or some other common use criteria. Most proposals are not consortium proposals.
- Non-technical summary (250 word maximum). Target audience is the interested public and decision makers.
- Project Website (optional, will not be sent to peer reviewers)
- Keywords (10 max)
Section 3 – Project Support
- Identify primary source(s) of funding, ALCC allocates computing time and not financial support. For DOE support only, it is requested you include the DOE program office and program manager name if known. For all sources of funding, only the name of the funding source is required (e.g. no grant numbers are requested).
- Current high performance resources supporting project (if applicable)
Section 4 – HPC Resources Request
- Site (OLCF, ALCF, or NERSC). For applications to Titan, projects capable of using GPUs or developing GPU capabilities are strongly encouraged.
- Allocation request in units of Machine Core-Hours x 1^6. For Titan, allocation is given in units of Titan Core-Hours which includes GPUs even if they are not used by the project.
- Storage request
Section 5 – Previous ALCC Publications (if applicable)
Section 6 – Suggested Reviewers (optional)
- Name, Organization
- Phone and/or Email (optional)
Section 7 – Abstract/Executive Summary (1 page maximum, PDF upload)
- The abstract/executive summary of your project. The target audience is peer reviewers and the allocation panel. The abstract is uploaded as a single PDF file independent of proposal narrative.
Section 8 – Proposal Upload (PDF upload)
Your main proposal is a single PDF upload. The main proposal is broken into three sections. (i) Narrative, (ii) Team Description, and (iii) Bibliography.
(i) Narrative (15 page maximum)
Proposal Narrative describing the proposed research. The narrative is uploaded as a single PDF file. The narrative must contain:
- Description of project relevance to DOE mission
- Dissemination plan of results (e.g. conference submission, paper publication, data repository)
- For consortium/end-station proposals, the narrative must also contain a management plan.
- A breakdown of your project into intermediate goals/ milestones and computational resources requested for each milestone. If there is only one goal with no intermediate goals/milestones, please indicate.
The narrative should contain:
- Anticipated results of the research
- The computational approach and the performance of the codes that will be used. Include whether the application software already contains the models necessary to simulate the problem to be studied and if not, an estimate of the person months needed to add those capabilities, e.g. new force fields. For applications to Titan, projects capable of using GPUs or developing GPU capabilities are strongly encouraged.
(ii) Team Description (1 page maximum)
- A brief description of the expertise of the members of the project, their role, and their experience in comparable computational projects.
(iii) Bibliography (no maximum)
Section 9 – CV
Upload the following as a single PDF:
- CV for the PI and project collaborators
- The CV of the primary PI must include a section that lists collaborators for the past four years with current affiliations.
Section 10 – Security
The security section asks a series of yes or no questions related to the content of your project/proposal. These questions are primarily to facilitate access to the center once an award is made and ensure proper handling of a proposal during the review process. The security questions are in three sections: Proprietary Information, Export Control, and Privacy Information.
Section 11 – Application Content Agreement
The application content agreement is your assurance that your proposal submission does not contain any prohibited information (e.g. classified information, export control information). If your submission includes proprietary information, the agreement also grants your permission for peer-reviewers to read your proposal.
Section 12 – Review and Submit