[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 5 (Friday, January 8, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1185-1186]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-391]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Science


Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice 99-08; Next 
Generation Internet--Research in Basic Technologies

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice inviting research grant applications.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (OASCR) 
of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby 
announces its interest in receiving applications for the Next 
Generation Internet--Research in Basic Technologies program. The Next 
Generation Internet (NGI) is a multi-agency federal research and 
development program to develop, test, and demonstrate advanced 
networking technologies and applications. This particular research 
notice invites research applications for innovative, fundamental 
networking research to support DOE-specific activities that include, 
but are not limited to, very high speed interfaces to connect devices 
to networks; protocols and techniques for coordinating multiple, 
heterogeneous network-attached devices; software to allow applications 
to adapt to changing network conditions; and network performance 
characterization.

DATES: Applicants are encouraged to submit a brief preapplication. All 
preapplications, referencing Program Notice 99-08, should be received 
by DOE by 4:30 P.M., E.S.T., February 12, 1999. A response to the 
preapplications discussing the potential program relevance and 
encouraging or discouraging a formal application generally will be 
communicated within several days of receipt.
    Formal applications submitted in response to this notice must be 
received by 4:30 P.M., E.S.T., March 31, 1999, in order to be accepted 
for merit review and to permit timely consideration for award in fiscal 
year 1999.

ADDRESSES: Preapplications, referencing Program Notice 99-08, should be 
sent by E-mail to [email protected].
    Formal applications, referencing Program Notice 99-08, should be 
sent to: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Grants and 
Contracts Division, SC-64, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-
1290, ATTN: Program Notice 99-08. This address must also be used when 
submitting applications by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, any other 
commercial overnight delivery service, or when hand-carried by the 
applicant. An original and seven copies of the application must be 
submitted.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dan Hitchcock, Office of Science, U.S. 
Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290, 
telephone: (301) 903-6767, E-mail: [email protected], fax: (301) 
903-7774. The full text of Program Notice 99-08 is available via the 
Internet using the following web site address: http://www.er.doe.gov/
production/grants/grants.html

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NGI initiative is a multi-agency Federal 
research and development (R&D) program that is developing advanced 
networking technologies, developing revolutionary applications that 
require advanced networking, and demonstrating these capabilities on

[[Page 1186]]

testbeds that are 100 to 1,000 times faster end-to-end than today's 
Internet. Partnerships among academia, industry, and governments 
(Federal, state, local, and foreign) that will keep the U.S. at the 
cutting-edge of information and communications technologies are 
encouraged. (Details on submitting applications involving partnerships 
can be found in the Application Guide for the Office of Science 
Financial Assistance Program referenced below). The strategic R&D 
investments are coordinated across the agencies involved and are 
focused to produce an environment where advanced networking R&D 
breakthroughs are possible. Information concerning NGI can be found at 
http://www.ngi.gov/.

Topic Details

    DOE's current core programs in network and application research are 
intended to enhance the Department's ability to satisfy mission 
requirements through advanced technologies such as distributed 
computing, national collaboratories, remote access to facilities, and 
remote access to petabyte-scale datasets with complex internal 
structure. The DOE NGI network research described in this notice will 
focus on developing network-aware middleware and application friendly 
tools and capabilities for its applications, as well as continuing 
research in high speed end system interfaces, network management, and 
differentiated services. The objective of this research is to enable 
more efficient and smarter use of network resources, as well as to 
support higher speeds (that is, end-to-end capacity).
    The DOE encourages the submission of applications for innovative, 
fundamental networking research. The DOE particularly encourages 
research in the following areas:
     Congestion and flow control techniques to provide 
applications with easy-to-use tools, capabilities, and interfaces that 
make efficient use of advanced infrastructure; for example, reliable 
ordered multicast.
     Multi-gigabit end system interfaces, analyzers, and 
switches along with mechanisms to reduce operating system overhead for 
data transfers.
     Protocols and techniques for coordinating multiple, 
heterogeneous network-attached devices.
     Techniques to support secure and fair user access to and 
use of network resources, provide secure inter-network peering, perform 
accounting/costing, and provide secure access to on-line facilities.
     Mechanisms to provide application controlled Class of 
Service and Quality of Service.
     Techniques for IP, ATM, and WDM network monitoring and 
analysis.
     Application-friendly, network-aware middleware to provide 
IP, ATM, and WDM resource and admission control, scheduling, 
management, prioritization, accounting (such as bidding and costing), 
authentication, analysis, monitoring, assurance and debugging 
mechanisms.
    A theme common to these research topics is the development of 
``network aware'' and infrastructure manipulating software in 
middleware, including libraries, system software and tools, that will 
be available to the application through easy-to-use-application 
interfaces. Research may focus on providing the ``network aware'' 
middleware support required by DOE applications. These applications 
will be heavily collaborative in nature and will concurrently use 
distributed resources such as supercomputers, high end storage systems 
with extremely large scientific data sets, unique on-line facilities, 
and massive, multi-dimensional datasets in tele-immersive environments. 
Software tools developed are expected to interoperate with existing 
middleware tools as well as those under development.

Program Funding

    It is anticipated that up to $2 million will be available for 
multiple awards to be made in FY 1999 in the categories described 
above, contingent on the availability of appropriated funds. 
Applications may request project support up to three years, with out-
year support contingent on the availability of funds, progress of the 
research, and programmatic needs. Annual budgets are expected to range 
from $200,000 to $300,000 total costs.

Preapplications

    A brief preapplication may be submitted. The preapplication should 
identify on the cover sheet the institution, Principal Investigator 
name, address, telephone, fax and E-mail address, title of the project, 
and the field of scientific research. The preapplication should consist 
of a two to three page narrative describing the research project 
objectives and methods of accomplishment. These will be reviewed 
relative to the scope and research needs of the Next Generation 
Internet--Research in Basic Technologies Program.
    Preapplications are strongly encouraged but not required prior to 
submission of a full application. Please note that notification of a 
successful preapplication is not an indication that an award will be 
made in response to the formal application.
    Applications will be subjected to scientific merit review (peer 
review) and will be evaluated against the following evaluation criteria 
listed in descending order of importance as codified at 10 CFR 
605.10(d):
    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.
    The evaluation will include program policy factors such as the 
relevance of the proposed research to the terms of the announcement and 
an agency's programmatic needs. Note, external peer reviewers are 
selected with regard to both their scientific expertise and the absence 
of conflict-of-interest issues. Non-federal reviewers may be used, and 
submission of an application constitutes agreement that this is 
acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting institution.
    Information about the development and submission of applications, 
eligibility, limitations, evaluation, selection process, and other 
policies and procedures may be found in 10 CFR Part 605, and in the 
Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance 
Program. Electronic access to the Guide and required forms is made 
available via the World Wide Web at: http://www.er.doe.gov/production/
grants/grants.html. The Project Description must be 20 pages or less, 
exclusive of attachments. The application must contain an abstract or 
project summary, letters of intent from collaborators, and short 
vitaes.

(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 December 22, 1998.
John Rodney Clark,
Associate Director of Science for Resource Management.
[FR Doc. 99-391 Filed 1-7-99; 8:45 am]
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