How to Apply
Email your completed proposal to ALCC@science.doe.gov. Proposals for 2013 ALCC are due 11:59 PM EST February 1st, 2013. Awards will be announced in May 2013 and allocations will begin July 1st 2013.
Proposal Guidelines
The proposal should include the following content. Please note the 15 page maximum on the proposal narrative (including figures).
- Processor hours needed and the facility resource the hours are requested on (e.g.15 million processor hours on NERSC Hopper Cray XE6). For links to ALCC resources see ALCC Resources.
- Proposal narrative describing…15 pages max). The narrative should include:
- Anticipated results of the research and intermediate goals, as appropriate
- The computational approach and the performance of the codes that will be used. Include whether the application software already contains the models necessary to simulate the problem to be studied and if not, an estimate of the person months needed to add those capabilities, e.g. new force fields.
- Identification of funding source(s) that support this work
- Identification of current ERCAP and INCITE awards.
- CV of the PI
- A brief description of the expertise of the members of the project team in comparable computational projects
- Bibliography
- For ALCC proposals based …INCITE proposals, the submitted proposal should not be an identical resubmission and should address the peer review comments received on the previous proposal.
ALCC does not require proposals to follow a specific template and instead leaves the proposal structure to the discretion of the applicant. Successful proposals have used various organizations.
The following are suggestions and are not requirements.
- If listing intermediate goals, include computational resources required for those smaller goals. Often awards do not grant the full requested allocation, but rather award sub-allocations which are smaller allocations estimated by peer reviewers to enable pieces of the proposal goals to be met. Presenting intermediate goals with compute resources requested for these goals will increase the accuracy of and facilitate the allocation process.
- An important factor in evaluating the scientific merit is if the proposal is in areas directly related to the DOE mission. Therefore, authors may wish to specifically address how their project advances the DOE mission. This could include identification of a specific DOE program office whose mission needs the proposal is addressing, or connecting the proposal to listed projects of interest to the DOE. This list can be found under the 2013 ALCC Call for Proposals.
Review Process
ALCC proposals undergo scientific merit reviews through a peer review process. The proposals are evaluated against the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of importance as codified in the Code of Federal Regulations
(10 CFR 605.10) against the following criteria:
- Scientific and/or technical merit of the project
- Appropriateness of the proposed method or approach
- Competency of applicant’s personnel and adequacy of proposed resources
- Reasonableness and appropriateness of the proposed allocation request
Included in Scientific and/or technical merit of the project is an evaluation regarding if the project is “of interest to the Department of Energy (DOE) with an emphasis on high-risk, high-payoff simulations in areas directly related to the DOE mission”.
Eligibility
- The ALCC proposal must be Unites States based research
- The proposed work must be non-proprietary
- The proposed work must have a source of funding