[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 21, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2906-2908]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-1201]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice DE-FG01-
04ER04-09: Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing--Advanced 
Simulation of Fusion Plasmas

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Notice inviting research grant applications.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) of the Office of 
Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its 
interest in receiving grant applications for the development of 
scientific simulation codes needed to address complex problems in 
fusion energy sciences. The goal is the creation of codes that achieve 
high performance on a single node, scale to hundreds of nodes and 
thousands of processors, and have the potential to be ported to future 
generations of high performance computers. This announcement is focused 
on topical areas that are important to a burning plasma physics 
experiment, such as ITER, and will contribute to establishing the 
scientific foundation for an integrated fusion simulation in the 
future. Specific areas of interest include:
    [sbull] Turbulence and transport in order to understand energy and 
particle confinement in burning plasmas,
    [sbull] Macroscopic equilibrium and stability to predict stability 
limits in magnetically confined plasmas,
    [sbull] Boundary layer effects in plasmas in order to understand 
the transport of heat and particles in the edge region of a fusion 
device, and
    [sbull] Electromagnetic wave/particle interactions to be able to 
predict heating and current drive in burning plasmas.
    The full text of Program Notice DE-FG01-04ER04-09 is available via 
the Internet at the following Web site address: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.

DATES: Applicants are requested to submit a Letter-of-Intent by 
February 16, 2004. This letter should include the name of the 
applicant, the title of the project, the name of the Principal 
Investigator(s)/project director, the amount of funds requested, and a 
one-page abstract. Letters-of-Intent will be used to organize and 
expedite the merit review process. Failure to submit such letters will 
not negatively affect a responsive application submitted in a timely 
fashion. The Letter-of-Intent should be sent by E-mail to 
[email protected], and the subject line should state: Letter-
of-Intent regarding Program Notice DE-FG01-04ER04-09.
    Formal applications submitted in response to this notice must be 
received by DOE no later than 4:30 p.m., March 23, 2004. Electronic 
submission of formal applications in PDF format is required.

ADDRESSES: Letters-of-Intent should be sent by E-mail to 
[email protected], and the subject line should state: Letter-
of-Intent regarding Program Notice DE-FG01-04ER04-09.
    Full applications in response to this solicitation Number DE-FG01-
04ER04-09 must be submitted electronically by an authorized 
institutional business official through DOE's Industry Interactive 
Procurement System (IIPS) at: http://e-center.doe.gov/. IIPS provides 
for the posting of solicitations and receipt of applications in a 
paperless environment via the Internet. In order to submit applications 
through IIPS, your business official will need to register at the IIPS 
Web site. It is suggested that this registration be completed several 
days prior to the date on which you plan to submit the formal 
application. The Office of Science will include attachments as part of 
this notice that provide the appropriate forms in PDF fillable format 
that are to be submitted through IIPS. IIPS offers the option of 
submitting multiple files--please limit submissions to only one file 
within the volume if possible, with a maximum of no more than four 
files. Color images should be submitted in IIPS as a separate file in 
PDF format and identified as such. These images should be kept to a 
minimum due to the limitations of reproducing them. They should be 
numbered and referred to in the body of the technical scientific grant 
application as Color image 1, Color image 2, etc. Questions regarding 
the operation of IIPS may be e-mailed to the IIPS Help Desk at: 
[email protected], or you may call the help desk at: 800-683-0751; 
residents of Canada call: 202-287-1491. Further information on the use 
of IIPS by the Office of Science is available at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Stephen Eckstrand or Dr. Arnold 
Kritz, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, SC-55/Germantown Building, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. SW., Washington, DC 
20585-1290. Telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are listed below:

Stephen Eckstrand: telephone 301-903-5546, e-mail 
[email protected].
Arnold Kritz: telephone 301-903-2027, e-mail 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing

    Beyond the scientific computing and computational science research 
embedded in the Office of Science (SC) core research programs, SC 
invests in a portfolio of coordinated research efforts directed at 
exploiting the emerging capabilities of terascale and petascale 
computing under the collective title of Scientific Discovery through 
Advanced Computing (SciDAC). The research projects in the SciDAC 
portfolio respond to the extraordinary difficulties of realizing 
sustained peak performance for scientific applications, such as 
simulating combustion, making multi-century climate predictions, 
understanding and controlling a burning plasma, and designing new 
particle accelerators that require terascale and petascale capabilities 
to accomplish their research goals. In recognition of these 
difficulties, the SciDAC research projects are collaborative efforts 
involving teams of physical scientists, mathematicians, computer 
scientists, and computational scientists working on major software and 
algorithm development for problems in the core research programs of the 
Office of Science. Research funded in the SciDAC portfolio is enabling 
teams of laboratory and university researchers to solve some of the 
most challenging scientific problems in the core programs of the Office 
of Science at a level of accuracy and detail never before achieved. A 
complete description of the SciDAC program can be found at: http://www.osti.gov/scidac/.

Background: Advanced Simulation of Fusion Plasmas

    In January 2003, the President announced that the United States 
would seek to join ITER negotiations, and the United States has 
subsequently done so. ITER is an ambitious international research 
project to harness the promise of fusion energy. Following this 
announcement, the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences decided to focus its 
part of the SciDAC program on burning plasma physics needs. 
Accordingly, the new and renewal applications for the fusion SciDAC 
program will concentrate on developing reliable computational modeling 
capabilities for dealing with burning plasma physics issues relevant to 
ITER, and on establishing the scientific groundwork for an integrated 
fusion simulation project. Such a project is needed to develop the 
predictive capability necessary to improve

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experimental planning for ITER and enhance scientific understanding 
gained from the operation of ITER.
    The scope and complexity of these projects will require close 
collaboration among researchers from the computational and theoretical 
plasma physics, computer science, and applied mathematics disciplines. 
Thus, this solicitation calls for the creation of topical centers as 
the organizational basis for a successful application. A topical center 
is a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary team that will:
    [sbull] Create scientific simulation codes that take full advantage 
of terascale computers,
    [sbull] Work closely with other SciDAC teams to ensure that the 
best available mathematical algorithms and computer science methods are 
employed, and
    [sbull] Manage the work of the center in a way that will foster 
good communication and decision making (see section on Collaboration 
and Coordination below).
    Partnerships among universities, national laboratories, and 
industry are encouraged. Collaborations between computational plasma 
physicists, applied mathematicians and computer scientists are also 
encouraged. Applicants may request additional funding for associated 
applied mathematics or computer science work that is needed to support 
the development of the scientific applications codes as part of 
Scientific Application Partnership Program.
    Applications are being sought in the following four topical areas:

1. Macroscopic Equilibrium and Stability

    Applications for development of codes to model macroscale dynamics 
in fusion-grade tokamak plasmas should address relevant physics issues 
in 3-dimensional extended magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), such as (1) full 
nonlinear sawtooth oscillation modeling in fusion-grade plasmas, (2) 
tearing mode and neoclassical tearing mode excitation and control in 
high-beta plasmas, (3) nonlinear evolution and control of resistive 
wall modes, including toroidal flows, (4) effects of fast ions, such as 
fusion-produced alpha particles, on MHD phenomena in tokamak plasmas, 
(5) edge MHD-type instabilities and their non-linear evolution, (6) 
two-fluid and kinetic effects on MHD modes, and (7) the onset and 
evolution of major disruptions.

2. Turbulence and Transport

    Applications for studies of microturbulence and transport of 
energy, particles and momentum need to address key scientific problems, 
such as (1) Bohm versus gyro-Bohm scaling and the transition between 
the two regimes, (2) transport barrier formation and dynamics including 
the different transport channels, (3) statistics of mesoscale 
intermittency in transport (e.g., avalanches), (4) the dynamics of 
transport perturbation events such as heat pulse propagation, and (5) 
electromagnetic turbulence and electron heat transport due to magnetic 
perturbations.

3. Boundary Layer/Edge Plasma Modeling

    Applications related to edge modeling should address scientific 
issues such as (1) evolution of the edge transport barrier including 
the mechanism for L-H mode transition, transport within the edge 
barrier, the trigger mechanism for ELM crashes, the frequency of ELM 
crashes, and the plasma energy, density and current lost during each 
ELM crash, (2) effects associated with the scrape-off layer, diverter 
and plasma wall interaction including plasma convective transport to 
the wall, neutral recycling, wall erosion, and inward impurity 
transport from the wall.

4. Electromagnetic Wave/Plasma Interaction

    Applications related to the role of radio frequency waves in 
burning plasmas need to address topics such as (1) wave-plasma 
interactions in plasmas with a large energetic alpha particle 
population and in plasmas with a radio frequency driven high velocity 
tail population, (2) the role of non-inductive currents and energetic 
particle populations on MHD equilibrium and instabilities in burning 
plasmas, such as the effects of localized radio frequency currents or 
heating on island formation in neoclassical tearing modes, sawtooth 
oscillations and disruptions, (3) the effect of radio frequency on the 
control of turbulence and transport barrier formation due to localized 
heating, current drive, or radio frequency driven plasma flows, and (4) 
the effect of the plasma edge on the antenna and the ability to launch 
radio frequency waves in burning plasma experiments.

Collaboration and Coordination

    It is expected that all applications submitted in response to this 
notice will be for collaborative centers involving more than one 
institution. Each institution involved in a proposed collaborative 
research project must submit a separate application, identifying the 
co-PI who has responsibility for the project research carried out at 
that institution. Also, each institution must include a separate Face 
Page (DOE F 4650.2), Budget Page (DOE F 4620.1), Assurance of 
Compliance (DOE F 1600.5), and FA CERTS for the institution. These 
collaborative research applications must include a common technical 
description of the overall research project, but must also specify the 
distinct scope of the work that will be carried out at each 
institution. The primary PI for the collaborative research project 
should include a summary budget for the entire project, including 
annual funding proposed for each institution and the annual funding 
proposed for Scientific Application Partnership Program activities. 
Synergistic collaborations with researchers in federal laboratories and 
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), including 
the DOE National Laboratories are encouraged, though no funds will be 
provided to these organizations under this Notice.
    Further information on preparation of collaborative proposals is 
available in the Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial 
Assistance Program that is available via the Internet at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/Colab.html.
    Since each center will be developing new physics models and 
computational tools that are needed for an integrated fusion simulation 
capability, it is important that there be good communication between 
the different centers. It is also important to have guidance on code 
capabilities and development priorities from the broader fusion, 
scientific and computational communities. Thus, all successful projects 
should plan to work with the SciDAC management structure established by 
the Office of Science and the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences at the 
beginning of the SciDAC program. The SC SciDAC management team holds an 
annual principal investigators meeting to ensure good communication 
between the SciDAC applications projects and the SciDAC applied 
mathematics and computer science projects. The Office of Fusion Energy 
Sciences' oversight of the fusion SciDAC projects includes a program 
advisory committee, which holds an annual coordination meeting to 
review the progress of each of the fusion SciDAC projects and to 
develop priorities for future work.

Program Funding

    Approximately $1,700,000 of Fiscal Year 2004 funding will be 
available for grant awards in FY 2004. Additional funding for the 
proposed project may be available through the Office of

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Advanced Scientific Computing Research for closely related research in 
computer science and/or applied mathematics. Applications may request 
support for up to three years, with out-year support contingent on the 
availability of funds and satisfactory progress. To support multi-
disciplinary, multi-institutional efforts, annual funding levels of up 
to $1 million may be requested for the scientific application work and 
up to $200,000 per year for the Scientific Application Partnership 
Program work.
    As required by the SC grant application guide, applicants must 
submit their budgets using the Budget Page (DOE Form 4620.1) with one 
Budget Page for each year of requested funding. The requested funding 
for the proposed work in computer science and applied mathematics 
should be included on a separate Budget Page. However, applicants are 
also requested to list the proposed computer science and applied 
mathematics costs separately in an appendix, as the Office of Advanced 
Scientific Computing Research may support this part of the work (up to 
about 20 percent of the total project cost). The Office of Fusion 
Energy Sciences expects to fund two or three centers, depending on the 
size of the awards.

Applications

    Applications will be subjected to scientific merit review (peer 
review) and will be evaluated against the following criteria listed in 
descending order of importance as codified in 10 CFR part 605.10(d) 
(http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/605index.html):
    1. Scientific and/or technical merit of the project;
    2. Appropriateness of the proposed method or approach;
    3. Competency of the applicant's personnel and adequacy of the 
proposed resources; and
    4. Reasonableness and appropriateness of the proposed budget.
    The evaluation under the first criterion in 10 CFR part 605.10(d), 
Scientific and Technical Merit, will pay particular attention to:
    (a) The importance of the proposed project to the mission of the 
Office of Fusion Energy Sciences;
    (b) The potential of the proposed project to advance the state-of-
the-art in computational modeling and simulation of plasma behavior; 
and
    (c) The need for extraordinary computing resources to address 
problems of critical scientific importance to the fusion program and 
the demonstrated abilities of the applicants to use terascale 
computers.
    The evaluation under item 2, Appropriateness of the Proposed Method 
or Approach, will also consider the following elements related to 
quality of planning and management:
    (a) If the project involves more than one scientific code, how the 
use of multiple codes will contribute to a coherent set of scientific 
objectives that are more readily achieved through the use of multiple 
codes;
    (b) Soundness of the plan for effective management of the project;
    (c) Quality of plan for ensuring communication with math and 
computer science projects and with other relevant SciDAC projects;
    (d) Viability of plan for verifying and validating the models 
developed, including close coupling with experiments for ultimate 
validation; and
    (e) Quality and clarity of proposed work schedule and deliverables.
    Note that 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.
    General information about development and submission of 
applications, eligibility, limitations, evaluations and selection 
processes, and other policies and procedures may be found in the 
Application Guide for the Office of Science (SC) Financial Assistance 
Program and in 10 CFR part 605. Electronic access to SC's Financial 
Assistance Guide and required forms is made available via the Internet 
using the following Web site address: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.
    In addition, for this notice, project descriptions must be 25 pages 
or less, including tables and figures, but excluding attachments. The 
application must also contain an abstract or project summary on a 
separate page with the name of the principal investigator, mailing 
address, phone, FAX, and email listed. The application must also 
include letters of commitment from all non-funded collaborators 
(briefly describing the intended contribution of each to the research), 
and short curriculum vitae for the principal investigator and any co-
PIs.
    The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number for this program 
is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP 10 CFR art 605.

    Issued in Washington, DC on: January 14, 2004.
John A. Alleva,
Director, Grants & Contracts Division, Office of Science.
[FR Doc. 04-1201 Filed 1-20-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P