Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC): Partnership in Nuclear Energy | DE FOA 0002592

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002592

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, through its Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, partnered with the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) and the NE Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program, released this funding opportunity to support the next round of Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC-5) Partnerships focused on nuclear energy. The goal is to fund ambitious, five-year research efforts that are explicitly built around strong, sustained collaborations between nuclear scientists and engineers on one side and applied mathematicians and computer scientists on the other. The central idea is that progress in nuclear energy modeling and simulation is increasingly limited not just by nuclear physics or engineering knowledge, but by the ability to translate that knowledge into scalable algorithms and software that can take full advantage of modern supercomputers.

This opportunity targets projects that can "enable or accelerate scientific discovery" by making deep, necessary, and productive use of DOE high-performance computing (HPC). In practice, that means proposals are expected to do more than run existing codes on large machines; they should advance the computational foundations (methods, algorithms, data approaches, performance engineering, and software design) in ways that directly accelerate NE objectives. The program is designed for multi-institutional teams, reflecting the reality that nuclear energy simulation at the frontier typically requires domain expertise, numerical methods expertise, and high-end computing/software expertise that rarely sits within a single organization.

A notable detail in this FOA is how it defines and expands access to "DOE HPC." For purposes of the call, DOE HPC is not limited to traditional ASCR leadership-class facilities; it is broadened to include the high-performance production systems at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), and systems available (or expected to be available by around 2022) at leadership computing facilities such as the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) and the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), as well as similar DOE computing facilities. The FOA also emphasizes the exascale era by pointing directly to major systems expected within the performance window of these awards, including Perlmutter (NERSC), Aurora (ALCF), and Frontier (OLCF). This matters because applicants are implicitly being asked to plan for, and credibly demonstrate, how their approaches will scale and remain relevant on rapidly evolving architectures, including exascale platforms.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is a discretionary DOE funding announcement (Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0002592) in the science and technology / research and development category (CFDA 81.049). Awards may be made as grants or cooperative agreements, which signals that DOE may expect active involvement in guiding or coordinating aspects of the work depending on the specific award mechanism. The FOA anticipated a small number of large awards: approximately two expected awards, with an award ceiling of $1,350,000 (as listed in the source information). The applications were to be submitted by April 19, 2022, following a posting/creation date of December 14, 2021, and the period of performance described is five years.

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning the competition is broadly open to a wide range of applicant types, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications contained in the full announcement. Overall, the opportunity is aimed at advancing nuclear energy modeling and simulation by pairing nuclear domain challenges with cutting-edge computational science, with the explicit expectation that teams will leverage DOE supercomputing resources and produce results that materially improve the nation’s nuclear energy research capabilities.

• The Department of Energy - Office of Science, Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC): Partnership in Nuclear Energy" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.049.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 14, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 19, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,350,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for DE FOA 0002592

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