DOE/NNSA Defense Programs Offers Grants for Stewardship Science Academic Alliances Centers of Excellence

Defense Programs, within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), directs research and development activities to maintain the safety, security, and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. This nuclear deterrent remains a vital part of our national security infrastructure. It maintains strategic stability, deters potential adversaries, and reassures our allies and partners of our security commitments. Since 1992, the United States has observed the moratorium on underground nuclear testing while significantly decreasing the size of its nuclear arsenal. National Policy required NNSA and its weapons laboratories to institute the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the stockpile, while allowing the country to pursue a variety of nonproliferation and disarmament goals.

The SSP combines sophisticated experiments, highly accurate physics modeling, and improved computational power to simulate and predict nuclear weapon performance over a wide range of conditions and scenarios.

The Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program was established in 2002 to support state-of-the-art research at U.S. academic institutions in areas of fundamental physical science and technology of relevance to the SSP mission. The SSAA Program provides the research experience necessary to maintain a cadre of trained scientists at U.S. universities to meet the nation’s current and future SSP needs, with a focus on those areas not supported by other federal agencies. It supports the DOE/NNSA’s priorities both to address the workforce specific needs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and to support the next generation of professionals who will meet those needs.

Defense Programs Office of Strategic Partnership Programs announces their interest in receiving applications for new or renewal cooperative agreement financial assistance awards for Centers of Excellence for research in the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program. Only applications for cooperative agreements awards will be accepted for this solicitation, no grant applications will be considered.

The specific areas of interest are:

1. Advanced Characterization of Materials Properties under Extreme Conditions

2. Low Energy Nuclear Science

3. Radiochemistry

4. High Energy Density Physics

Cooperative Agreement Applicant Responsibility. The applicant, if successful, will be the responsible authority regarding the settlement and satisfaction of all contractual and administrative issues, including but not limited to, disputes and claims arising out of any agreement between the applicant and the FFRDC contractor.

The Master Government List of FFRDCs is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdclist/

ADDRESS TO REQUEST APPLICATION PACKAGE

Application forms and instructions are available at Grants.gov. To access these materials, go to https://www.Grants.gov, select “Search Grants” and then enter the Assistance Listing number (81.112) and/or the NOFO number shown on the cover of this NOFO. Select the “Apply” button to access the application package. You are encouraged to review the Applicant FAQs in Grants.gov as you prepare and submit your application.

Applications submitted through www.FedConnect.net will not be accepted.

Defense Programs, within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), directs research and development activities to maintain the safety, security, and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. This nuclear deterrent remains a vital part of our national security infrastructure. It maintains strategic stability, deters potential adversaries, and reassures our allies and partners of our security commitments. Since 1992, the United States has observed the moratorium on underground nuclear testing while significantly decreasing the size of its nuclear arsenal. National Policy required NNSA and its weapons laboratories to institute the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the stockpile, while allowing the country to pursue a variety of nonproliferation and disarmament goals.

The SSP combines sophisticated experiments, highly accurate physics modeling, and improved computational power to simulate and predict nuclear weapon performance over a wide range of conditions and scenarios.

The Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program was established in 2002 to support state-of-the-art research at U.S. academic institutions in areas of fundamental physical science and technology of relevance to the SSP mission. The SSAA Program provides the research experience necessary to maintain a cadre of trained scientists at U.S. universities to meet the nation’s current and future SSP needs, with a focus on those areas not supported by other federal agencies. It supports the DOE/NNSA’s priorities both to address the workforce specific needs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and to support the next generation of professionals who will meet those needs.

Defense Programs Office of Strategic Partnership Programs announces their interest in receiving applications for new or renewal cooperative agreement financial assistance awards for Centers of Excellence for research in the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program. Only applications for cooperative agreements awards will be accepted for this solicitation, no grant applications will be considered.

The specific areas of interest are:

1. Advanced Characterization of Materials Properties under Extreme Conditions

2. Low Energy Nuclear Science

3. Radiochemistry

4. High Energy Density Physics

Cooperative Agreement Applicant Responsibility. The applicant, if successful, will be the responsible authority regarding the settlement and satisfaction of all contractual and administrative issues, including but not limited to, disputes and claims arising out of any agreement between the applicant and the FFRDC contractor.

The Master Government List of FFRDCs is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdclist/

ADDRESS TO REQUEST APPLICATION PACKAGE

Application forms and instructions are available at Grants.gov. To access these materials, go to https://www.Grants.gov, select “Search Grants” and then enter the Assistance Listing number (81.112) and/or the NOFO number shown on the cover of this NOFO. Select the “Apply” button to access the application package. You are encouraged to review the Applicant FAQs in Grants.gov as you prepare and submit your application.

Applications submitted through www.FedConnect.net will not be accepted.

(2)increase the availability of unique experimental facilities sited at the FFRDC Laboratories to the academic community, particularly for collaborations in areas of relevance to stockpile stewardship, and

(3)develop and maintain a long-term recruiting pipeline to the DOE/NNSA FFRDC’s by increasing the visibility of the DOE/NNSA scientific activities to the U.S. faculty and student communities.

FFRDCs are not eligible to receive any direct funding associated with this NOFO, except for reimbursement for use of facilities that require “user fees” in accordance with the institution’s written policies or procedures.

To affect this collaboration, a letter from an FFRDC employee who will be collaborating with the applicant must be submitted with the application. This letter must outline their understanding and role in the collaboration effort and indicate that no funds will be provided to the FFRDC from the awarded cooperative agreement except for reimbursement for use of facilities that require “user fees” as stated above.

In addition to the collaboration letters, FFRDC contractors may be proposed as a team member on another entity’s application subject to the following guidelines:

Authorization for non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs. If selected for award, the Federal agency sponsoring the FFRDC contractor must authorize in writing the use of the FFRDC contractor on the proposed project. The use of a FFRDC contractor must be consistent with the contractor’s authority under its award and must not place the FFRDC contractor in direct competition with the private sector.

Authorization for DOE/NNSA FFRDCs. If selected for award, the cognizant contracting officer for the FFRDC must authorize in writing the use of a DOE/NNSA FFRDC contractor on the proposed project. The following wording is acceptable for this authorization.

"Authorization is granted for the [Name] Laboratory to participate in the proposed project. The work proposed for the laboratory is consistent with or complimentary to the
missions of the laboratory, will not adversely impact execution of the DOE/NNSA assigned programs at the laboratory, and will not place the laboratory in direct competition with the domestic private sector.

If selected for award, the recipient is responsible for making contact with the appropriate DOE/NNSA FFRDC collaborating partner(s) who should in turn obtain prior written authorization from the DOE/NNSA FFRDC Contracting Officer.

Defense Programs, within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), directs research and development activities to maintain the safety, security, and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. This nuclear deterrent remains a vital part of our national security infrastructure. It maintains strategic stability, deters potential adversaries, and reassures our allies and partners of our security commitments. Since 1992, the United States has observed the moratorium on underground nuclear testing while significantly decreasing the size of its nuclear arsenal. National Policy required NNSA and its weapons laboratories to institute the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the stockpile, while allowing the country to pursue a variety of nonproliferation and disarmament goals.

The SSP combines sophisticated experiments, highly accurate physics modeling, and improved computational power to simulate and predict nuclear weapon performance over a wide range of conditions and scenarios.

The Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program was established in 2002 to support state-of-the-art research at U.S. academic institutions in areas of fundamental physical science and technology of relevance to the SSP mission. The SSAA Program provides the research experience necessary to maintain a cadre of trained scientists at U.S. universities to meet the nation’s current and future SSP needs, with a focus on those areas not supported by other federal agencies. It supports the DOE/NNSA’s priorities both to address the workforce specific needs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and to support the next generation of professionals who will meet those needs.

Defense Programs Office of Strategic Partnership Programs announces their interest in receiving applications for new or renewal cooperative agreement financial assistance awards for Centers of Excellence for research in the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program. Only applications for cooperative agreements awards will be accepted for this solicitation, no grant applications will be considered.

The specific areas of interest are:

1. Advanced Characterization of Materials Properties under Extreme Conditions

2. Low Energy Nuclear Science

3. Radiochemistry

4. High Energy Density Physics

Cooperative Agreement Applicant Responsibility. The applicant, if successful, will be the responsible authority regarding the settlement and satisfaction of all contractual and administrative issues, including but not limited to, disputes and claims arising out of any agreement between the applicant and the FFRDC contractor.

The Master Government List of FFRDCs is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdclist/

ADDRESS TO REQUEST APPLICATION PACKAGE

Application forms and instructions are available at Grants.gov. To access these materials, go to https://www.Grants.gov, select “Search Grants” and then enter the Assistance Listing number (81.112) and/or the NOFO number shown on the cover of this NOFO. Select the “Apply” button to access the application package. You are encouraged to review the Applicant FAQs in Grants.gov as you prepare and submit your application.

Applications submitted through www.FedConnect.net will not be accepted.