Office of the Director
January 24, 2012
TO: Division Directors and Associate Laboratory Directors
FROM: A. Paul Alivisatos, Director
SUBJECT: Laboratory Directed Research and Development FY 2013 Call
for Proposals
With this Call for Proposals, I am initiating the FY 2013 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program. The LDRD program constitutes one of the principal means to seed innovative science and new research directions.
An important factor in judging proposals will be their support of competencies aligned with the Laboratory's and DOE’s strategic directions. Multi-investigator and multi-divisional initiatives are particularly encouraged. Of special significance are cross-disciplinary projects aimed at reducing human interference with the natural carbon cycle, projects from all divisions that advance the boundaries of ultrafast photon science, projects that address the integration of capabilities in the biosciences and the focused application of biological tools, and projects that address the use of large-scale computation and data science. All projects should have: a clearly stated problem (addressing a challenging scientific question, DOE mission, or national need), coherent objectives, and a well-considered plan for leadership, organization, and budget.
For the FY 2013 cycle, we will continue to review a subset of proposals as Laboratory-wide, and these will be reviewed by a broad representation of all senior managers. The second group of reviews for all other proposals in FY 2013 will be for the Divisional LDRD competition. These proposals will be reviewed and assessed this year by Area; i.e. the Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) and the Division Directors within each Area will decide on the ranking of proposals within that Area, and then make recommendations to the Deputy Laboratory Director and Laboratory Director. This second group of reviews for all other proposals may emphasize specific research topics for each area (see detailed instructions). There will not be a Track 2 Discovery review process this year.
The total funding level of the FY 2013 LDRD program should be about $21.0M for operating and capital equipment expenses (including G&A). Capital equipment funding must support a project that receives operating funds. This Call for Proposals (CFP) will be announced in Today at Berkeley Lab, and a copy of this memo will be emailed directly to Berkeley Lab scientists and engineers. The complete call, schedule, guidance, and forms will be available on the Web (http://www.lbl.gov/DIR/LDRD/). All proposals are to be submitted through a web-based submission system that can be accessed via the CFP website.
Proposals should be put into the submission system by Friday, March 23, 2012. If you have questions, or need assistance, email ldrd@lbl.gov.
Attachments
C: Senior, Staff, and Faculty Scientists & Engineers via email (w/o Attachments)
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T. Hansen