[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 81 (Monday, April 28, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22917-22918]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-10609]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Energy Research


Energy Research Financial Assistance Program Notice 97-14; 
Advanced Computational Testing and Simulation Software Activities

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Mathematical, Information, and Computational Sciences 
(MICS) Division of the Office of Computational and Technology Research 
(OCTR), Office of Energy Research (ER), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 
announces its interest in receiving applications for research grants in 
Advanced Computational Testing and Simulation Software Activities.

DATES: Formal applications submitted in response to this notice must be 
received not later than 4:30 p.m. E.D.T., July 16, 1997, to permit 
timely consideration for award early in fiscal year 1998.

ADDRESSES: Formal applications, referencing Program Notice 97-14, 
should be forwarded to: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy 
Research, Grants and Contracts Division, ER-64, 19901 Germantown Road, 
Germantown, Maryland 20874-1290, Attn: Program Notice 97-14. The above 
address also must be used when submitting formal applications by U.S. 
Postal Service Express Mail, any commercial mail delivery service, or 
when hand-carried by the applicant.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Mary Anne Scott, Office of Energy 
Research, U.S. Department of Energy, OCTR/MICS, ER-31, 19901 Germantown 
Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290. Tel: (301) 903-6368; E-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The vision of the DOE 2000 Initiative is to 
accelerate DOE mission accomplishments through advanced collaboration 
and simulation. Objectives include improved ability to solve DOE's 
scientific problems, an increased R & D productivity and efficiency, 
and enhanced access to DOE resources by R & D partners.
    One of the two major thrusts for addressing these objectives is the 
Advanced Computational Testing and Simulation (ACTS) Toolkit. This 
toolkit will provide an integrated set of software tools, algorithms, 
and environments that accelerate the adoption and use of advanced 
computing by DOE programs for mission-critical problems. The toolkit 
will include capabilities for representing complex geometries, solving 
diverse numerical equations, simplifying multi-language parallel 
execution, evaluating and enhancing code performance, and dynamically 
steering calculations during execution. The strategy for building this 
toolkit is to select a base set of existing successful tools, provide 
support to make them interoperable, and then add new tools and 
interfaces to make the entire toolkit robust for diverse application 
needs.
    In FY 1997, the founding efforts for the ACTS Toolkit were begun--
the Scientific Template Library (SciTL). SciTL concentrates on three 
areas of tool development: interoperable numeric libraries, object-
oriented libraries and capabilities for modular code development, and 
runtime libraries for efficient parallel execution (including dynamic 
load-balancing). All portions of the SciTL work are tied to specific 
DOE applications (Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) 
codes and ER Grand Challenges) and initially targeted to specific 
computing platforms (ASCI machines). The FY 1997 SciTL project 
description, including detailed plans, deliverables, and participants, 
can be found via the Internet at the following URL: http://
www.acl.lanl.gov/SciTL
    In FY 1998, the ACTS Toolkit efforts will begin to expand. 
Applications are solicited to build on the SciTL to further advance the 
strategies of the ACTS Toolkit. Technical areas of interest include, 
but are not limited to: additional application-specific data structures 
required for scientific codes, additional numerical solvers, parallel 
and distributed data structures to support numerical techniques; high-
performance parallel input/output components, language interoperability 
(primarily Fortran, C, and C++), tools for enhancing fault tolerance, 
tools for easily saving and restoring complex pointer-based structures 
and objects, tools for debugging and performance analysis/tuning; and 
toolkit components required for new domains of use. Applications are 
also encouraged for expanding the use of the ACTS Toolkit to a wider 
range of DOE applications and for expanding the types of computing 
platforms on which the Toolkit can be used.
    Successful applications will relate to the current SciTL structure 
by one or more of the following:
     Building new ACTS Toolkit capabilities by using the 
current functionality provided by the SciTL interface,
     Expanding capabilities of the SciTL interface by 
developing complementary libraries that interoperate with relevant 
portions of the existing SciTL components,
     Evaluating the current capabilities of the SciTL 
components for their functionality, performance, and portability in the 
context of new application and/or computing systems domains,
     Restructuring portions of the existing SciTL components to 
enhance functionality, improve performance, and/or expand portability,

[[Page 22918]]

     Linking the ACTS Toolkit with components in the other DOE 
2000 thrust: National Collaboratories (see the Internet web page at 
URL: http://www.mcs.anl.gov/DOE2000/).
    Applications may be for up to three years in duration, with second 
and third year funding subject to progress demonstrated in annual 
reviews. Based on anticipated available funding and sufficient 
applications of high merit, approximately 4-6 applications averaging 
$250K/year could be supported.
    Applications will be subjected to formal merit review (peer review) 
and will be evaluated against the following criteria listed in 
descending order of importance as codified for review of applications 
from the academic and industrial sectors in 10 CFR part 605:
    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.
    Within the Scientific and/or Technical Merit criterion above, the 
following subcriteria will be used for evaluation purposes (relative to 
the current SciTL), and will be evaluated equally:
    i. Increased functionality.
    ii. Enhanced performance.
    iii. Improved usability.
    iv. Widened scope of applicability.
    Within the Appropriateness of Method criterion above, applicants 
are encouraged to identify opportunities for collaboration with ongoing 
DOE 2000 projects and other applications important to DOE missions.
    External peer reviewers will be selected with regard to both their 
scientific expertise and the absence of conflict-of-interest issues. 
Non-federal reviewers will be used, and submission of an application 
constitutes agreement that this is acceptable to the investigator(s).
    Information about the development and submission of applications, 
eligibility, limitations, evaluation, selection processes, and other 
policies and procedures may be found in the Application Guide for the 
Office of Energy Research Financial Assistance Program and 10 CFR Part 
605. The Application Guide is available from the U.S. Department of 
Energy, Office of Energy Research, OCTR/MICS, ER-31, 19901 Germantown 
Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290. Telephone requests may be made by 
calling (301) 903-5800. Electronic access to ER's Application Guide is 
possible via the Internet at the following URL: http://www.er.doe.gov/
production/grants/grants.html.
    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 April 15, 1997.
John Rodney Clark,
Associate Director for Resource Management, Office of Energy Research.
[FR Doc. 97-10609 Filed 4-23-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P