SciDAC-BES Announcement Frequently Asked Questions
Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing: Materials and Chemical Sciences
Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) DE-FOA-0000593 and Program Announcement LAB11-593
Q1: The FOA highlights excited states and electron correlation. Does that mean other areas are out of scope?
A1: As also stated in the FOA “BES/ASCR workshops held in the past two years have outlined a number of priority research directions any one of which could form a basis for a SciDAC Partnership project.”
Q2: Are partnerships with the SciDAC Institutes required?
A2: As stated in the FOA, “Applicants must provide specific plans for establishing partnerships with the SciDAC Institutes to systematically address the applied math and computer science challenges that are inherent to the scale of new architectures or common across applications.”
Q3: When we propose a budget for ASCR activities, do we need to request additional funding for SciDAC Institute personnel?
A3: Yes. The lead proposal's budget must include the requested funding for all personnel performing work, including those in the SciDAC Institutes. As stated in the Announcement for the SciDAC Institutes (http://science.doe.gov/grants/pdf/SC-FOA-0000505.pdf) "...the work of each proposed Institute is not science application-specific…", therefore any work that you want them to do for your proposed project must include a proposed budget for that work.
Q4: (a) Are partnerships encouraged to request funding for current Institute researchers to enable project-specific collaborations? (b) This increases the funding for the Institute participants beyond that covered by the Institute itself. Is this acceptable?
A4: (a) Yes. (b) Yes.
Q5: Are partnerships discouraged from funding non-Institute researchers who have similar expertise to that covered by an Institute?
A5: From the FOA: “Applicants are encouraged to identify collaborations with researchers in the recently selected SciDAC Institutes, avoiding duplication of resources available at the Institutes; the goal is to build the functionality of a vertically integrated enterprise but with common resources found in the SciDAC Institutes” and “Alternatively, applicants may propose non-duplicative Applied Math/Computer Science expertise to supplement topics for which resources are provided by the Institutes, as well as expertise in topics for which no resources were provided by the Institutes”. The question should not be about the expertise but ultimately about the proposed assignments: there might be a non-Institute researcher with the same expertise as another in an Institute, but if their assignments were not duplicative, that would be acceptable. The goal is to avoid duplication of the work done by the Institutes.
Q6: To what extent should non-duplicative, non-supplemental Math & CS activities required by an application partnership be coordinated with one of the existing SciDAC Institutes?
A6: For unique Math or CS activities (i.e., not covered by any of the SciDAC Institutes), there is no need to coordinate with any of the SciDAC Institutes.
Q7: Regarding the submission process for collaborative proposals, is it acceptable for each participating institution to submit the same 20 page narrative to the grants or FWP process, augmented by a short work statement (2-3 pages) highlighting the particular work that would be done at that institution? Then, may the lead organization submit the full proposal with all the accompanying budget, FWP pages, and work statements from all collaborating institutions?
A7: That strategy is acceptable.
Q8: For the pre-proposal stage, are you expecting each collaborating institution to submit its own pre-proposal or do you want just one pre-proposal per collaboration?
A8: We expect only one pre-proposal per collaboration, which should be submitted by the lead PI. As described in the announcement, it should include information about all collaborators.
Q9: The lead institution is asked to provide the proposed annual budget for the SciDAC Partnership and for each collaborating institution following the example table in the FOA. Should this budget information be based on fiscal years or should it simply show the requested funding over 12 months for each consecutive year?
A9: It should simply show the requested funding over 12 months for each consecutive year.
Q10: May an institution or an individual participate in more than one SciDAC Partnership proposal or grant application?
A10: Yes.
Q11: Should a budget estimate be included in the pre-application?
A11: Yes, the pre-application should include a cover sheet that identifies the title of the project, the institution or organization, principal investigator name, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and the amount of funding requested for each year for the project for each funded institution.
Q12: Should biographical data be included in the pre-application?
A12: Applicants are strongly encouraged to include a one-page curriculum vitae from each Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigator and senior collaborator or consultant in the pre-applications.
