[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 45 (Monday, March 8, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10690-10692]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-5124]


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

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice DE-FG01-
04ER04-16; Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Research

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.

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

SUMMARY: The Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) of 
the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby 
announces interest in receiving applications for the Integrated 
Assessment of Climate Change Research Program. The program funds 
research that contributes to integrated assessment of climate change, 
and in particular, research to develop and improve methods and tools 
that focus on specialized topics of importance to integrated 
assessments. The research program supports the Administration's Climate 
Change Science Program goals to understand, model, and assess the 
effects of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. 
The program places special emphasis on developing methods to evaluate 
economic and other costs and benefits of climate change under ``what if 
'' scenarios that include policy interventions to mitigate greenhouse 
gas emissions.
    All applications submitted in response to this notice must 
explicitly state how the proposed research will support accomplishment 
of the BER Climate Change Research Division's Long Term Measure of 
Scientific Advancement to deliver improved data and models to determine 
acceptable levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

DATES: Applicants are encouraged (but not required) to submit a brief 
preapplication for programmatic review. There is no deadline for the 
preapplication, but early submission of preapplications is encouraged 
to allow time for meaningful discussions.
    The deadline for receipt of formal applications is 4:30 p.m., 
eastern time, May 11, 2004, to be accepted for merit review and to 
permit timely consideration for award in Fiscal Year 2004 and early 
Fiscal Year 2005.

ADDRESSES: Preapplications, referencing Program Notice DE-FG01-04ER04-
16, should be sent e-mail to [email protected].
    Formal applications referencing Program Notice DE-FG01-04ER04-16, 
must be sent 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 website. IIPS 
offers the option of using multiple files, please limit submissions to 
one volume and one file if possible, with a maximum of no more than 
four PDF files. 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. 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. Further information on the use of 
IIPS by the Office of Science is available at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.
    If you are unable to submit an application through IIPS, please 
contact the Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science at: (301) 
903-5212 or (301) 903-3604, in order to gain assistance for submission 
through IIPS or to receive special approval and instructions on how to 
submit printed applications.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. John Houghton, Climate Change 
Research Division, SC-74, Office of Biological and Environmental 
Research, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Ave, SW., Washington, DC 20585-1290, telephone: (301) 903-
8288, e-mail: [email protected], fax: (301) 903-8519. The 
full text of Program Notice DE-FG01-04ER04-16, is available via the 
World Wide Web using the following Web site address: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: An integrated assessment of climate change 
is defined here as the analysis of the human (including economics), 
physical, and biological aspects of climate change from the cause, such 
as greenhouse gas emissions, through impacts, such as changes in 
unmanaged ecosystems, sea level rise, and altered growing conditions 
for crops. The primary emphasis in an integrated assessment is to 
represent all three aspects in such a way that the costs and benefits 
of climate change can be evaluated. Integrated assessments are commonly 
based on simulated scenarios using a computer model.
    A description of integrated assessment may be found in volume 3 of 
the report ``Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third 
Assessment Report: Climate Change 2001''. The reference is: Ferenc 
Toth, Mark Mwandosya, John Christiansen, Jae Edmonds, Brian Flannery, 
Carlos Gay-Garcia, Hoesung Lee, Klaus Meyer-Abich, Elena Nikitina, Atiq 
Rahman, Richard Richels, Ye Riqui, Arturo Villavicencio, Yoko Wake, and 
John Weyant, ``Decision-Making Frameworks,'' Chapter 10 in Climate 
Change 2001: Mitigation, Cambridge University Press, 2001 ( http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/reports.htm).
    Integrated assessment models are used to evaluate, for example, 
specific policy options. This notice solicits research to develop and 
improve the methods and tools used to assess the costs and benefits of 
climate change. The research funded as a result of this solicitation 
will be judged in part on its potential to develop and improve 
integrated assessment methods and models needed to support policy 
analysis and development. Policy analysis and development itself will 
not be funded.
    The program will concentrate support on the topics described below. 
Applications that involve development of analytical models and computer 
codes will be judged partly on the basis of whether they include 
proposed tasks to document and make the models and model codes 
available to the community. The following is a list of

[[Page 10691]]

topics that are high priority. Topics proposed by principal 
investigators that fall outside this list will require a preapplication 
and a strong justification to be considered for funding. Research 
projects in these elements are intended to fill critical gaps in 
current integrated assessments.

A. Technology Innovation and Diffusion

    Research to develop and improve methods and models for assessing 
the benefits and costs of innovation and diffusion of technologies that 
affect the emission of greenhouse gases is a primary focus of the 
Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Research Program. Assumptions 
regarding technology innovation and diffusion are some of the most 
important contributors to overall uncertainty in predicting future 
emissions of greenhouse gases from technologies. A key area of interest 
is research to improve the ability of the integrated assessment models 
to represent technological changes that directly or indirectly affect 
greenhouse gas emissions as a function of variables that are determined 
by the model (``endogenizing technological change'') rather than 
postulated as static input to the model.
    One particular difficulty in modeling technological change is in 
representing the penetration of new technologies. Over the 21st 
century, the typical timeframe simulated using the integrated 
assessment models, technologies need to be invented, innovated upon, 
and diffused to the sectors in which they are used. Applications are 
sought that address issues such as: (1) The rate at which technological 
changes take place, (2) identification of factors that affect the 
rates, (3) the representation of the adoption of new technologies in 
which the model assigns a price lower for the new technology than for 
competing technologies, and (4) whether, and if so, how, historical 
precedents can be used to better understand technology innovation and 
diffusion processes and rates and therefore lead to better modeling of 
such processes and rates.
    The rate and nature of technology diffusion from the more-developed 
nations to developing nations is not well understood. Predicting 
economic structural changes in developing nations that influence 
technology diffusion is also problematical. Much of the uncertainty in 
integrated assessment models comes from the difficulty in predicting 
the response of the energy sector and greenhouse gas emissions in 
developing nations to both regulation and technological innovations in 
more-developed nations. Applications are sought to understand how 
historical precedents can be used to understand and model the future 
movement of technologies across national borders.
    Applications are also sought for research that will help provide 
tools to address other policy-relevant questions, such as the 
following, as they relate to greenhouse gas emissions:
     What effect would various policy options have on 
``carbon leakage'', the movement of emissions of greenhouse gases away 
from nations with relatively regulated emissions to ones with 
relatively unregulated emissions?
     How can the impact of research and development 
on invention, innovation, and adoption of technologies that emit 
greenhouse gases be simulated and modeled quantitatively?

B. Improve Methods for Constructing Emission Scenarios Used To Drive 
Integrated Assessment Models

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has published a 
Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) (http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/reports.htm#sprep). These scenarios describe various possible 
directions for future development and are used as input into the 
Integrated Assessment models. The scenarios include projections of 
economic growth, population dynamics, and technology development that 
vary by time and locale.
    This notice solicits research to improve on the existing 
methodologies for developing emission scenarios and to enhance the 
current SRES scenarios. Enhancing the current SRES scenarios should 
make use of recent updates to demographic projections. Forecasts of 
productivity growth, particularly in lesser developed countries, should 
cover the range of likely outcomes. Some scenarios should represent 
possible policy interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such 
as mitigation options that would lead to various stable atmospheric 
concentration levels. Forecasts of technology improvements should be 
tied to assumptions regarding mitigation options.

Program Funding

    It is anticipated that up to $2,000,000 will be available for 
multiple awards to be made in Fiscal Year 2004 and early Fiscal Year 
2005, in the categories described above, contingent on the availability 
of appropriated funds. Additional funds will be made available for a 
similar program announcement to the DOE National Laboratories. 
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 for project 
applications are expected to range from $50,000 to $175,000 total 
costs. Funds for this research will come from the Integrated Assessment 
Research Program. DOE is under no obligation to pay for any costs 
associated with preparation or submission of applications.

Preapplications

    A preapplication is strongly encouraged (but not required) prior to 
submission of a full application. The preapplication should list the 
Principal Investigator's name, institution, address, telephone number, 
and e-mail address; title of the project; and proposed collaborators. 
The preapplication should consist of a one to two page narrative 
describing the research project objectives and methods of 
accomplishment. A response to each preapplication, discussing the 
potential program relevance of a formal application, generally will be 
communicated within 15 days of receipt. There is no deadline for the 
submission of preapplications, but applicants should allow sufficient 
time to meet the application deadline. Please note that notification of 
a successful preapplication is not an indication that an award will be 
made in response to the formal application.

Merit Review

    Applications will be subjected to formal merit review (peer review) 
and will be evaluated against the following evaluation criteria which 
are listed in descending order of importance 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 process will include program policy factors such as 
the relevance of the proposed research to the terms of the announcement 
and the 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. Both Federal and non-Federal reviewers 
will often be used, and submission of an application constitutes 
agreement that this is acceptable to the investigator(s) and the 
submitting institution.

[[Page 10692]]

Submission Information

    Information about the development and submission of applications, 
eligibility, limitations, evaluation, selection process, and other 
policies and procedures may be found in the Application Guide for the 
Office of Science Financial Assistance Program and 10 CFR part 605. 
Electronic access to SC's Financial Assistance Application Guide and 
required forms is made available via the World Wide Web: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.
    In addition, for this notice, the research description must be 15 
pages or less (10-point or larger font), including figures and tables 
but excluding attachments, and must include a one-page summary of the 
proposed project. The summary should appear on a separate page (page 1) 
and must include the proposed-project title; name of the applicant and 
the applicant's address, phone number, and e-mail address; names of any 
co-investigators; and the proposed-project summary. Attachments should 
include literature references cited in the research description, 
curriculum vitae for each investigator (2-page maximum per 
investigator), a listing of all current and pending Federal support for 
each investigator, and letters of intent when collaborations are part 
of the proposed research.
    For researchers who do not have access to the World Wide Web (www), 
please contact Karen Carlson, Office of Biological and Environmental 
Research, Climate Change Research Division, SC-74/Germantown Building, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 
20585-1290, phone: (301) 903-3338, fax: (301) 903-8519, E-mail: 
[email protected]; for hard copies of background material 
mentioned in this solicitation.

    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 March 2, 2004.
Martin Rubinstein,
Acting Director, Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science.
[FR Doc. 04-5124 Filed 3-5-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P