Physics Research University Program

Grant Applications - HEP Guidelines

These guidelines are in addition to, not in lieu of, the official DOE proposal requirements which can be found at http://www.sc.doe.gov/grants/grants.html

Twelve point type or larger should be used everywhere except for footnotes and DOE forms. Also, margins should be at least 2.5 cm.

There are three types of applications for new or additional funds which MUST be submitted through grants.gov: (1) new proposals for funding new faculty or projects, (2) renewal proposals to renew existing grants for typically several years, and (3) supplemental proposals for additional funds for existing grants.

For multiyear grants, yearly progress or continuation reports are required annually after the initial renewal year through the next to last year of the project period in order to provide funding. As long as the continuation budgets are within 25% of the budgets provided in the renewal, AND no new scope is involved, any progress reports and any additional materials should be emailed directly to SC.HEPProgressReports@science.doe.gov. If you want to propose continuation of the grant with new scope or funding that exceeds the budget threshold above, you MUST submit this request as a new proposal through grants.gov.

Final Reports: A final report summarizing the entire project must be submitted by the recipient within 90 days after the final project period ends or the award is terminated. Satisfactory completion of an award will be contingent upon the receipt of this report. The final report shall follow the same outline as a progress report. Manuscripts prepared for publication should be appended. Submit one copy of the Final Report to the DOE Project Officer (Block 11 of the Notice of Financial Assistance Award). The final Scientific/Technical Report must be submitted electronically-via the DOE Energy Link System (E-Link) accessed at http://www.osti.gov/elink-2413.

The report must be accompanied by a completed electronic version of DOE Form 241.3, "U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Announcement of Scientific and Technical Information (STI)." You can complete, upload, and submit the DOE F.241.3 online via E-Link.

Reports must be submitted in the ADOBE PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (PDF) and be one integrated PDF file that contains all text, tables, diagrams, photographs, schematic, graphs, and charts. Materials, such as prints, videos, and books, that are essential to the report but cannot be submitted electronically, should be sent to the Contracting Officer at the address listed in Block 12 of the Notice of Financial Assistance Award.

New and Renewal Applications

Note that a renewal application must be received by DOE no later than six (6) months before the scheduled expiration of the project period. Renewal applications which arrive late may result in termination of the existing grant, unless the university explicitly requests a “no-fund extension” to extend the grant period without any additional funding. Item 2 should be a separate .pdf file attachment in the grants.gov application. Items 1 and 4-9 should be a separate .pdf file attachment in the grants.gov application.

1. Title page: Give the project title, the principal investigator/project director’s name and e-mail address, the duration of the proposal, and, for renewals, the DOE award number.

2. Abstract: One page or less describing the supported work (renewals only) and the work to be supported in language appropriate for a non-specialist in high energy physics.

3. Budget pages: Use the budget forms in grants.gov.
   
   For renewals, you should provide a budget page for each year of the grant (use a separate page for each physics research area supported by the grant [proton accelerator based, electron accelerator based, non-accelerator, theory, accelerator science, detector R&D, and computational HEP], a budget page for the totals of the yearly budgets for each research area supported by the grant, and a budget page for the grant total of the multiyear proposal. Note that unless University tasks are aligned with the physics research areas supported by the grant, the task organization at a particular University will be irrelevant in the organization of the budget pages. Each yearly budget page for each physics research area needs to have budget explanation pages for it. If there are several experiments associated with a given physics research area, then the budget explanation pages need to show the breakdown of funding for each experiment. (For example, if a given University is working on CDF and CMS, the budget explanation pages need to show the breakdown for each activity and this breakdown needs to be consistent with the personnel assignments in the Personnel Distribution forms described in item 8 below.)
   
   In order to help reviewers understand funding trends in renewals, current year actual budgets for each research area supported by the grant should be included in an Appendix to the proposal.
   
   For new grants, you should provide a budget page for each year of the proposed project with budget explanation pages for each year and a single budget page for the total amount of the proposal.

4. Table of contents: Number the pages of the proposal sequentially starting with the Project Description described below.

5. Project description: Give a detailed description of the proposed project: This is limited to 10 pages per senior investigator (typically a faculty PI) so a grant with 5 PIs has an upper limit of 50 pages for this part of the proposal. References can be listed in footnotes. Additional supporting material (i.e. CVs, publication lists, etc.) can be put on web pages with a URL reference in the proposal. For renewals, this description should list specific past accomplishments whereas both renewals and new proposals should give future milestones for the proposed research. Proposals which exceed the page limit will NOT be reviewed and therefore cannot be considered for funding.

6. Current and Pending Support: State all current and pending support from other federal sources.

7. Unexpended Funds: For renewals, give an estimate of the anticipated unexpended funds that will remain at the end of the current project period. Briefly describe the proposed use of these funds and state whether they have been included in the first budget year covered in the renewal proposal.

8. Personnel Distribution Tables: For the first year of the new or renewal proposal, fill out the personnel distribution form located at http://www.science.doe.gov/hep/files/docs/PersonnelDistributionTable.doc For renewals, note which personnel are being included for the first time. Give estimated graduation dates for students and termination dates for postdocs where applicable. Use a separate table for each physics research area supported by the grant.

9. Biographical Sketches and Publications: Give detailed information about the background and experience of the senior investigator(s) including references to publications, reports, and conference presentations for the past five (5) years (new only) or past three (3) years (renewals only). Provide appropriate URL addresses, if available. Do NOT include copies of the papers. FOR SECURITY REASONS DO NOT PROVIDE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING PERSONAL INFORMATION SINCE THESE PROPOSALS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED TO REVIEWERS OUTSIDE THE OFFICE: SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, PASSPORT NUMBERS, CREDIT CARD NUMBERS, DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH, OR EDUCATIONAL TRANSCRIPTS.

In addition to the grants.gov application, please email a Personnel Distribution Table in MICROSOFT WORD format directly to your program monitor.

Supplemental Applications

Submit through grants.gov. Fill out a single year’s budget page for each physics research area which is receiving supplemental funding. Provide a .pdf file attachment with brief explanation of how the funding will be used to achieve specific project goals. In addition, email your project monitor an updated Personnel Distribution Table in MICROSOFT WORD format showing the new personnel distribution resulting from the supplemental funding if applicable.

Continuations - HEP Progress Report Format

DO NOT include any personally identifiable information (e.g. birth dates, SSN #s) in your report.

1. DOE award # and name of the recipient (Institution).
2. Project Title and name and contact info (email, phone #) of the lead PI.
3. Date of the report and period covered by the report.
4. A brief description of accomplishments supported by this award over the past budget period, and planned activities for the current budget period.  This can be in bullet form or whatever you think is useful and appropriate to indicate the sense of progress and near-term goals.   Please limit this section to no more than 5 pages per co-investigator (co-PI), usually tenured or tenure-track faculty members.  For grants with multiple co-PI’s, please be specific about individual  roles and accomplishments  within the group.
5.  A list of papers (already published, in press, submitted) in which DOE support is acknowledged as follows: 
1. Papers which exclusively acknowledge HEP support.
2. Papers which acknowledge HEP and other agency support - Indicate briefly the role of each acknowledged agency in supporting the research described in the publication.
   
   In the case of multi-institution publications, only list those papers in which your group has made a significant contribution and indicate the nature of that contribution.    

6. A current list of people working on this research activity – graduate students, post-docs, visitors, technicians, etc.  Indicate for each whether they are receiving full or partial support from this award. 
1. In case of partial support, indicate number of months of DOE support, and also list other support (current and pending, federal and non-federal.)  Briefly indicate the overlap, if any, and/or distinctiveness of the other support with the DOE-supported project. 
2. Note any transitions that have occurred or are planned to occur in the past or current budget period (students graduating, new postdoc arriving, etc.)
7. Unexpended funds:  Indicate the amount of unexpended funds, if any, that are anticipated to be left at the end of the current budget period.  
8. Budget (use standard DOE budget forms DOE F 4620.1, 1 per research area)
1. Provide estimated actual costs for the current budget period – the one which ends at your next grant renewal date -- including all funds (base, supplemental, one-shot, etc.,) awarded for that period.
2. Provide a spending plan for the upcoming budget period (the one which starts at your next grant renewal date) . The total spending for the grant must match your planned grant total funding for this year based on your most recent grant renewal.
3. Provide a brief outline of high priority supplemental activities that do not fit within your current budget plan.
   
   Preferably the budget data for items 8a and 8b above should be provided as neighboring columns on one table.

Note: When submitting progress reports to the office, please email them to SC.HEPProgressReports@science.doe.gov.

Progress Reports must be submitted 90 days prior to the anticipated continuation funding date to our office.

(Updated October 26, 2010)