Department of Energy: Subsurface Biogeochemical Research Grant

Applications involving the effort of multiple institutions are permitted, subject to the following requirements.
• An application must be submitted by a lead institution that includes proposed subawards to any other institution, except other Federal agencies and their FFRDCs. (Other Federal agencies must submit their own application, either on their own behalf of for their FFRDCs.)
• DOE/NNSA National are not eligible to apply as lead institutions but may be proposed as team members.
• The involvement of all DOE/NNSA National Laboratories is limited to no more than 10% of the total costs requested in an application. Applications involving DOE/NNSA National Laboratories must demonstrate clear scientific leadership from the submitting institution
• A multi-institutional application must clearly designate a lead PI and institution, and must include a project management section in the lead PI’s application that clearly describes the roles, proposed activities and deliverables for each collaborator, especially those at another institution.
• The lead PI/institution must submit budgetary information for each of the funded Co-PIs on a supplement to the application cover page, as explained in Section IV. Part C.2.
• All applications involving collaborators must include letters of agreement from each collaborator who would receive funding. These letters should specify the contributions the collaborators intend to make if the application is accepted and funded.
• Applications for multi-investigator projects at multiple institutions also must present a well-defined management structure and coordination/communication plan for integrating collaborating investigators.
• Applications that do not include any of the bold-faced required elements listed here will be declined without review.

An individual researcher is limited to only one submission as lead Principal Investigator to applications submitted in response to this FOA.

Applicants that are not domestic organizations should be advised that:
• Individual applicants are unlikely to possess the skills, abilities, and resources to successfully accomplish the objectives of this FOA. Individual applicants are encouraged to address this concern in their applications and to demonstrate how they will accomplish the objectives of this FOA.
• Non-domestic applicants are advised that successful applications from non-domestic applicants include a detailed demonstration of how the applicant possesses skills, resources, and abilities that do not exist among potential domestic applicants.

SBR is part of the Environmental System Science (ESS) activity within the Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD) of BER. The CESD mission is to enhance the seasonal to multi-decadal predictability of the Earth system by using long-term field experiments, DOE user facilities, modeling and simulation, uncertainty characterization, best-in-class computing, process research, and data analytics and management to inform the development of advanced solutions to the nation’s energy challenges. The 2018 CESD Strategic Plan identifies five scientific grand challenges and associated research questions that will be addressed through the research programs and User Facilities within the division over the next five years (https://science.energy.gov/~/media/ber/pdf/workshop%20reports/2018_CESD_Strategic_Plan.pdf).