[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 5 (Friday, January 8, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1187-1188]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-392]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Office of Science; Office of Science Financial Assistance Program 
Notice 99-10; Next Generation Internet--University Network Technology 
Testbeds

AGENCY: U.S. 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--University Network Technology Testbeds 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 DOE-university technology 
testbeds to focus on developing and testing techniques and technologies 
to allow advanced network services to be deployed across interconnected 
networks that are independently administered.

DATES: Applicants are encouraged to submit a brief preapplication. All 
preapplications, referencing Program Notice 99-10, 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 99-10, should be 
sent by E-mail to [email protected].
    Formal applications, referencing Program Notice 99-10, 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 99-10. 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: George Seweryniak, Office of Science, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-
1290, telephone: (301) 903-0071, E-mail: [email protected], fax: 
(301) 903-7774. The full text of Program Notice 99-10 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 
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. It is critical to the Department that these advanced 
technologies be available not only to sites directly connected to the 
Department's backbone network Esnet, but also to scientists at 
universities and industrial partners with other types of connections to 
the Internet who are members of research communities important to DOE 
missions. The DOE NGI network research described in this notice will 
focus on developing and testing techniques and technologies to allow 
advanced network services to be deployed across interconnected networks 
that are independently administered.
    The DOE encourages the submission of applications for University 
Network Technology Testbeds to address the issues of deploying advanced 
network services end-to-end across interconnected autonomous networks. 
These partnerships can include individual universities, network 
interconnection points such as Gigapops, and backbone network service 
providers. It is expected that these partnerships will work with ESnet 
to develop integrated testbeds and the associated management tools.
    Important issues to be addressed in these testbeds include:
     Deployment of advanced differentiated services technology 
across autonomous networks both when the priority flow represents a 
small fraction of the available capability and when the priority flow 
is a significant fraction of the available capability;
     Development and testing of advanced tools to manage 
``peering'' of networks with advanced services;
     Cross-domain implementations of security and 
authentication technologies;
     Development and testing of network performance monitoring 
and characterization software which applications can use in this 
environment to optimize their performance; and
     Development of policy frameworks and specification 
languages to facilitate the negotiation of capabilities across 
autonomous system boundaries.

Program Funding

    It is anticipated that up to $5 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 $500,000 to $2,000,000 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--University Network Technology Testbeds Program.
    Preapplications are strongly encouraged but not required prior to 
submission of a full application. Please

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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. 99-392 Filed 1-7-99; 8:45 am]
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