Office of Science Announces the Early Career Research Program for FY 2012

WASHINGTON, DC—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today it is accepting proposals for the third year of the DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program to support the research of outstanding scientists early in their careers. Support will begin in 2012 for at least 50 early career researchers for five years at U.S. academic institutions and DOE national laboratories.

To be eligible for the competition, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory. The applicant must also have received a Ph.D. within the past ten years.

University awards will be at least $150,000 per year for five years and are intended to provide research expenses and summer salary over and above the awardee's academic-year faculty salary. For DOE national laboratories—where DOE funding typically covers a researcher's full year-round salary—the award will be at least $500,000 per year for five years to provide equivalent support.

Early career researchers may apply to one of six Office of Science program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research; Biological and Environmental Research; Basic Energy Sciences; Fusion Energy Sciences; High Energy Physics; or Nuclear Physics. Proposed research topics must fall within the programmatic priorities of DOE's Office of Science, which are provided in the program announcements. Funding will be competitively awarded on the basis of peer review.

Preapplications are mandatory and are due on Thursday, September 1, 2011. Full proposals will be due on Tuesday, November 29, 2011. Only those applicants that receive notification from DOE encouraging a formal proposal may submit full proposals.

This is the third year of an annual competition. During the last two years, 94 university and 44 national laboratory awards have been initiated.

Further information can be found at http://science.energy.gov/early-career/.