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Category: Energy R&D

Department of Energy Announces Second Annual Competition for Early Career Awards

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Today, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it is accepting proposals for the second year of the DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program to support the research of outstanding scientists early in their careers.  Up to $15 million in funding will be awarded in 2011 to support at least 50 early career researchers for five years at U.S. academic institutions and DOE national laboratories.
 
To be eligible for the competition, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory.  The applicant must also have received a Ph.D. within the past ten years.
 
University awards will be at least $150,000 per year for five years and are intended to provide research expenses and summer salary over and above the awardee’s academic-year faculty salary.  For DOE national laboratories—where DOE funding typically covers a researcher’s full year-round salary—the award will be at least $500,000 per year for five years to provide equivalent support.

Early career researchers may apply to one of six Office of Science program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research; Biological and Environmental Research; Basic Energy Sciences; Fusion Energy Sciences; High Energy Physics; or Nuclear Physics.  Proposed research topics must fall within the programmatic priorities of DOE’s Office of Science, which are provided in the program announcements.  Funding will be competitively awarded on the basis of peer review.

Preapplications are mandatory and are due on August 13, 2010, and proposals will be due on November 9, 2010.  Only those applicants that receive notification from DOE encouraging a formal application may submit full applications. 

This is the second year of an annual competition.  Last year’s program yielded 47 university awards and 22 national laboratory awards.

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House Passes COMPETES Act Reauthorization

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After a couple of procedural setbacks, the House of Representatives passed a 5-year reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act on Friday May 28th. The legislation provides for 7% annual increases to the budgets of the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, and National Institutes of Standards and Technology -keeping them on a path to double funding by 2016. Sights are now set on the Senate, which aims to pass a companion bill by the July 4th congressional recess.

One issue of concern in the bill for the university research community is an amendment approved by the House that links public universities’ response to information requests from their labor unions with their ability to collect facilities and administrative costs for their research grants.  The UW Office of Federal Relations is working towards a modification or elimination of the language in the final bill that emerges.

House Science and Technology Committee Statement on COMPETES Passage

Reauthorization of the COMPETES Act Stumbles (Again)

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The House of Representatives has run into difficulty in pasing the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. After failing to advance to a final vote last week, because of passage of a motion to send the legislation back to committee for additional consideration, on Wednesday May 19th the House failed to pass a revamped version under the expedited procedure of suspension of the rules.  The vote was 261 to 148, which was 12 votes short of the two-thirds vote needed for approval.  Fifteen Republicans voted in favor of the bill, including Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA-8th District); no Democrats opposed it.

Following the vote, House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) stated that he will continue to move the bill towards passage. He commented that “this bill is too important to let fall by the wayside.”  Continue reading “Reauthorization of the COMPETES Act Stumbles (Again)”

America COMPETES Reauthorization Moving Forward

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The University of Washington has joined dozens of institutions of higher education in calling on Congress to continue the investments in research and STEM education that were authorized in the America COMPETES Act of 2007. Both the House and Senate are on a path to reauthorize the legislation before the July 4th congressional recess. The House is slightly ahead of the Senate in its work on the legislation, as a draft bill was released late last week. The House bill (HR 515 – Amendment in the Nature of a Subsitute) continues the doubling path for three core science agencies (National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology). Additionally, the legislation proposes a 5-year authorization period in order to give more predictability of R&D/STEM education funding. A full committte markup on the House bill is scheduled for April 28th, with a vote on the floor of the House around May 12th.

NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Climate, Energy, and Sustainability

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NSF 10-040
Dear Colleague Letter: Climate, Energy, and Sustainability

Directorate for Biological Sciences, Directorate for Computer & Information Science and Engineering, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Directorate for Engineering, Directorate for Geosciences, Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, Office of Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Integrative Activities, Office of International Science and Engineering, Office of Polar Programs

March 2010

In FY 2010, NSF is expanding its support for climate research by issuing five new cross-directorate solicitations:

Water Sustainability and Climate (WSC) (NSF 10-524) -closed
Ocean Acidification (OA) (NSF 10-530) -closed
Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) (NSF 10-542)
Decadal and Regional Climate Prediction Using Earth System Models (EaSM) (NSF 10-554)
Dimensions of Biodiversity (NSF 10-548)

These solicitations are intended to support innovative research and education that will advance our capability and capacity to understand and predict changes to Earth’s natural and human-dominated systems, to assess the vulnerability and resilience of these systems to change, and to foster workforce development and scientific literacy in these areas. These advances will strengthen the scientific knowledge base for policy decisions at regional and national levels. Continue reading “NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Climate, Energy, and Sustainability”