FY 2010 Call for Proposals

Date: April 3, 2009
To: R&D Division and Program Directors
cc: I. S. Anderson, B. Bhaduri, M. V. Buchanan, E. R. Cantwell, D. C. Christensen, C. Daniel, B. H. Davison, E. C. Fox, R. L. Graham, W. H. Gray, J. J. Hack, G. K. Jacobs, T. E. Mason, S. E. Nagler, J. A. Nichols, R. S. Pillai, J. W. Smith, J. C. Wells, and T. Zacharia
From: David J. Dean (RC)
Subject: FY 2010 LDRD Director’s R&D Fund Call for Proposals

Proposals are now being accepted for the FY 2010 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Director’s R&D Fund. This call seeks high-quality proposals that address the research priorities of the Laboratory’s 6 continuing and 3 crosscutting initiatives. The continuing initiatives are:

  • Advanced Energy Systems;
  • National Security Science and Technology;
  • Neutron Sciences;
  • Science for Extreme Environments: Advanced Materials and Interfacial Processes for Energy;
  • Systems Biology and the Environment; and
  • Ultrascale Computing and Data Science.

We have developed three initiatives whose strategic portfolio will include expertise from across the Laboratory, and whose outcomes will position the Laboratory for future growth in these areas. The crosscutting initiatives are:

  • Emerging Science and Technology for Sustainable Bioenergy;
  • Solar Generation and Storage of Electrical Energy; and
  • Understanding Climate Change Impacts: Energy, Carbon, and Water 

These initiatives represent the areas that the Laboratory has chosen to emphasize as we strengthen our science and technology base and prepare for future needs of the Department of Energy (DOE) and Work for Others sponsors. Proposals should address the target areas described in the attached document FY 2010 Director’s R&D Fund Research Priorities. As in previous years, we will also consider truly outstanding proposals not directly connected to these areas under a “general” category.

We want to encourage the submittal of crosscutting ideas that offer potential for solving the national, economic, and energy security challenges of the United States, particularly those areas that take advantage of the Laboratory’s new tools and capabilities in nanoscience, neutron sciences, and petascale computing.

Please be aware that proposals may only be submitted to one initiative this year. Therefore, it is important the proposal teams clearly understand the research priorities and direct their proposals to the correct initiative. A mechanism is in place to redirect a proposal to another initiative if necessary, but as your staffs develop proposals, I strongly encourage you to engage the managers and points of contact associated with each initiative. They can provide the guidance for tailoring proposals to best meet the needs of their initiatives.

Most of the managers plan to hold information meetings to discuss the strategy and objectives of their initiatives. I strongly encourage you and interested staff members to attend these meetings. Specific times and places for each initiative will be announced in ORNL Today.

Authors should keep in mind that providing proper context for proposed research is important. The review committees know the scientific and technical issues of the initiatives from both the Laboratory and national perspectives, particularly as embodied in the programs of DOE and our Work-for-Others sponsors. Therefore, proposals should avoid broad generalities when discussing background and significance. Such discussions should focus on the science and technology specific to the proposal and include a comparison of the proposed novel approach with the latest published work and explain how the project would advance the state of the art and influence its field of research.

Proposals may request support for one or two fiscal years. In limiting project duration to two fiscal years, I realize that it is often difficult to recruit a postdoctoral researcher for a project and provide support for a full two-year appointment. To alleviate this problem, we will permit proposals to budget postdoctoral researchers for 24 months over three fiscal years, if the new recruit arrives within six months after the project starts.

Information and guidance for submitting a proposal is provided in the Standards-Based Management System (SBMS) for LDRD. As before, to allow consideration of the widest possible range of ideas while limiting the effort invested in preparing proposals, we will go through a two-stage review process. Preliminary proposals must be entered into the Laboratory Overhead Investments System (LOIS) by May 6; full proposals by July 8. Presentations of full proposals and renewal requests will be scheduled during July 27 – August 14. The full schedule and a copy of this call are available on the LDRD web site: Lab Overhead Investment System (LDRD/PD). Questions concerning the Director’s R&D Fund should be directed to Rekha S. Pillai, LDRD Manager (Bldg. 4500N, MS-6250, 574-4174, LDRD_manager@ornl.gov).

DJD:slc