Building EPSCoR-State/National Laboratory Partnerships | DE FOA 0002215

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002215

The Department of Energy (DOE), through its Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), is soliciting grant applications to create or strengthen partnerships between organizations in EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions and DOE National Laboratories. The central goal is to spark fundamental, early-stage energy research collaborations that connect researchers in EPSCoR states and territories with the scientific expertise, specialized infrastructure, and capabilities available across the national lab system. In practice, the opportunity is designed to help teams form durable working relationships with a lab partner, generate preliminary results, and position projects for larger follow-on funding or longer-term collaborative programs.

A key requirement is meaningful participation by graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows, making workforce development an explicit part of the program rather than an optional add-on. The funding announcement also encourages applications from junior faculty based in EPSCoR jurisdictions, which signals an emphasis on helping early-career investigators build national-lab connections, access advanced facilities, and establish a research trajectory that can compete at the national level. In addition, the DOE strongly encourages the use of DOE user facilities, including Office of Science user facilities and, where relevant, Office of Nuclear Energy user facilities. This suggests proposals that leverage unique national assets (for example, specialized instruments, beamlines, supercomputing, materials characterization platforms, or nuclear science infrastructure) may be particularly well aligned with the intent of the program.

While the program is broadly aimed at early-stage energy research, DOE flags several topic areas as being of particular interest: Quantum Information Science, Microelectronics, Data Science/Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, Energy Storage, and Plastics Recycling. Applicants are not limited only to these areas, but highlighting them indicates where DOE expects strong demand and strategic relevance. Proposals that clearly connect the partnership and research plan to one or more of these areas, and that show why the national lab partner and its facilities are essential to the work, are likely to fit the call well.

Eligibility follows the National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) program determinations. That means applicants must be located in an EPSCoR jurisdiction, which for this opportunity includes: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virgin Islands, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The eligible applicant types are broad and include various levels of government, public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofits (with or without 501(c)(3) status), tribal governments and organizations, individuals, for-profit organizations (including small businesses), and other entities as allowed by the announcement.

Administratively, this is a discretionary grant opportunity from the Department of Energy, Office of Science, with Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0002215 and CFDA 81.049. The award ceiling listed is $250,000, with an anticipated number of awards of 32. The opportunity was created December 9, 2019, with an original closing date of March 27, 2020. Even though those dates reflect the original posting, the summary details capture the structure and intent of the program: relatively modest, seed-scale awards aimed at catalyzing lab-connected collaborations, building research capacity in EPSCoR jurisdictions, training graduate students and postdocs, and encouraging strong use of DOE national laboratory and user-facility resources.

• The Department of Energy - Office of Science, Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Building EPSCoR-State/National Laboratory Partnerships" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.049.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 09, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 27, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 32 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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