[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 9, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10994-10996]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-5125]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice DE-FG01-
04ER04-15; Institutes for the Advancement of Computational Biology 
Research and Education

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.

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

SUMMARY: The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) of 
the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby 
announces its interest in receiving applications for institutes for the 
advancement of computational biology research and education, in support 
of the ASCR computational biology program, the ASCR-BER (Office of 
Biological and Environmental Research) DOE Genomic: GTL program, and 
the broader SC research programs. Prospective applicants should observe 
that:
    (1) Applications serving two complementary objectives--the 
advancement of computational biology research as an intellectual 
pursuit; and innovative approaches to educating biologists as 
computational scientists--are sought;
    (2) The focus of the proposed effort should be on advancing 
computational biology research and education as counterbalancing and 
complementary activities to experimental biology--rather than on 
computation as a support activity to experimental biology;
    (3) Proposed research and educational activities should be relevant 
to the mission of the Office of Science and, in particular to the long 
term goals of the GTL program;
    (4) Proposed activities should include a plan for an active 
dialogue with industry, universities, and other laboratories and 
centers in order to maximize the dissemination of information, promote 
and support technology commercialization, and avoid unnecessary 
duplication of effort;
    (5) Multiple year funding is not guaranteed, although applicants 
may request periods of performance ranging up to 3 years.
    More specific information on this solicitation is outlined in the 
Supplementary Information section below.

DATES: The deadline for receipt of formal applications is 4:30 p.m., 
eastern time, Tuesday, April 6, 2004, in order to be accepted for merit 
review and to permit timely consideration for award in Fiscal Year 
2004.

ADDRESSES: Formal applications in response to this solicitation are to 
be electronically submitted 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 using multiple files, please 
limit submissions to one volume and one file if possible, with a 
maximum of no more than four PDF 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 proposal 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 the 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 instruction on how to 
submit printed applications.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: DOE's Office of Science, in order to 
accomplish its mission, is faced with the need for computational 
biology capabilities that far exceed what is currently available. In 
particular, the Office of Science's needs for its GTL program are 
documented at the DOE Genomics: GTL Web site: http://www.doegenomestolife.org/
    The goals of the GTL program are:
     Identify the protein machines that carry out 
critical life functions;
     Characterize the gene regulatory networks that 
control these machines;
     Explore the functional repertoire of complex 
microbial communities in their natural environments to provide a

[[Page 10995]]

foundation for understanding and using their remarkably diverse 
capabilities to address DOE missions; and
     Develop the computational capabilities to 
integrate and understand these data and begin to model complex 
biological systems.
    This solicitation announces ASCR's interest in receiving 
applications for institutes for the advancement of computational 
biology research and education, serving two complementary objectives:
     Computational Biology Research: Developing new 
computational approaches to support the Office of Science's missions in 
microbial biology and GTL: and
     Computational Biology Education: Developing and 
implementing programs to educate biologists in the use of computation 
as a principal tool for biological research and discovery.
    As integrated activities are sought, applicants should craft 
applications that respond to both of these objectives, rather than 
selecting just one.
    With regard to the computational biology research objective, the 
proposed activity should provide an intellectual home for a scientific 
community carrying out research enabling the solution of cutting-edge 
biology problems. Activities should be designed to support 
interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations. Activities 
should embrace interdisciplinary teams of researchers, drawn from the 
physical and life sciences, computational mathematics and computer 
science. These teams should focus on application development to harness 
the power of computational science for the solution of data-intensive 
and/or computation-intensive biology problems. No experimental 
activities are foreseen. Researchers should draw upon the biological 
data available from the GTL community, as well as, the broader 
community. The research objectives should focus on advancing 
computation as a tool for biological discovery, hypothesis formulation, 
and providing guidance to future experimentation.
    With regard to the computational biology education objective, the 
proposed activity should develop, implement and disseminate materials 
for the education of computational biologists at the graduate level. 
The education program should be tested through actual prototyping and 
use. The courseware developed should cover as broad a spectrum of both 
data-intensive and computation-intensive biology problems as possible. 
Illustrative examples should be drawn from biology applications of 
interest to the Office of Science, to the extent possible.
    The proposed activities should include a plan for playing an active 
role in maintaining a dialogue with industry, universities, and other 
laboratories and centers in order to maximize the dissemination of 
information, promote and support technology commercialization, and 
avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.

Collaboration

    Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with researchers in other 
institutions, such as universities, industry, non-profit organizations, 
federal laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development 
Centers (FFRDCs), including the DOE National Laboratories, where 
appropriate, and to include cost sharing wherever feasible. Additional 
information on collaboration is available in the Application Guide for 
the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program that is available 
via the Internet at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/Colab.html.

Program Funding

    It is anticipated that up to $3 million will be available in Fiscal 
Year 2004, contingent upon availability of appropriated funds. It is 
anticipated that no more than 4 awards will be made. Multiple year 
funding is not guaranteed, although applicants may request periods of 
performance ranging up to 3 years.

Merit Review

    Applications will be subjected to scientific 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 under item 1, Scientific and/or Technical Merit of 
the Project, will also consider the following elements:
    (a) The relevance of the proposed program of computational biology 
research and education to the mission of the Office of Science.
    (b) The extent to which the focus of the proposed effort is on 
advancing computational biology research and education as 
counterbalancing and complementary activities to experimental biology--
rather than on computation as a support activity to experimental 
biology.
    (c) The potential of the proposed project to make a significant 
impact on computational biology research and education.
    (d) The potential of the proposed project to identify and advance 
the development of new research and educational techniques intended to 
accelerate the adoption of computation as a principal mode of research 
for biologists.
    The evaluation under item 2, Appropriateness of the Proposed Method 
or Approach, will also consider the following elements:
    (a) The degree to which the project adheres to the management 
philosophy of integrating both research and education into the project 
execution.
    (b) The extent to which the project incorporates broad community 
(industry/academia/other federal programs) interaction and outreach.
    (c) Quality and clarity of proposed work schedule and deliverables.
    (d) Extent to which materials developed under this project will be 
available to the public (e.g. as ``open source'').
    The evaluation under item 3, Competency of Applicant's Personnel 
and Adequacy of Proposed Resources, will also consider the following 
element: quality of the physical and intellectual environment for both 
research and educational activities in computational biology.
    The evaluation 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. 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.

Submission Information

    The Project Description must be 20 pages or less, exclusive of 
attachments. It must contain an abstract or project summary on a 
separate page with the name of the applicant, mailing address, phone, 
FAX and e-mail listed. The application must include letters of intent 
from collaborators (briefly describing the intended contribution of 
each to the research), and short curriculum vitaes for the applicant 
and any co-PIs.
    Applicants must disclose all information on their current and 
pending grants. To provide a consistent

[[Page 10996]]

format for the submission, review and solicitation of grant 
applications submitted under this notice, the preparation and 
submission of grant applications must follow the guidelines given in 
the Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance 
Program, 10 CFR Part 605. Access to SC's Financial Assistance 
Application Guide is possible via the World Wide Web at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html. DOE is under no 
obligation to pay for any costs associated with the preparation or 
submission of applications if an award is not made.

    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 February 25, 2004.
Martin Rubinstein,
Acting Director, Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science.
[FR Doc. 04-5125 Filed 3-8-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P