[Federal Register: March 9, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 46)]
[Notices]
[Page 10994-10996]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09mr04-43]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice DE-FG01-
04ER04-15; Institutes for the Advancement of Computational Biology
Research and Education
AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) of
the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby
announces its interest in receiving applications for institutes for the
advancement of computational biology research and education, in support
of the ASCR computational biology program, the ASCR-BER (Office of
Biological and Environmental Research) DOE Genomic: GTL program, and
the broader SC research programs. Prospective applicants should observe
that:
(1) Applications serving two complementary objectives--the
advancement of computational biology research as an intellectual
pursuit; and innovative approaches to educating biologists as
computational scientists--are sought;
(2) The focus of the proposed effort should be on advancing
computational biology research and education as counterbalancing and
complementary activities to experimental biology--rather than on
computation as a support activity to experimental biology;
(3) Proposed research and educational activities should be relevant
to the mission of the Office of Science and, in particular to the long
term goals of the GTL program;
(4) Proposed activities should include a plan for an active
dialogue with industry, universities, and other laboratories and
centers in order to maximize the dissemination of information, promote
and support technology commercialization, and avoid unnecessary
duplication of effort;
(5) Multiple year funding is not guaranteed, although applicants
may request periods of performance ranging up to 3 years.
More specific information on this solicitation is outlined in the
Supplementary Information section below.
DATES: The deadline for receipt of formal applications is 4:30 p.m.,
eastern time, Tuesday, April 6, 2004, in order to be accepted for merit
review and to permit timely consideration for award in Fiscal Year
2004.
ADDRESSES: Formal applications in response to this solicitation are to
be electronically submitted by an authorized institutional business
official through DOE's Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS)
at: http://e-center.doe.gov/. IIPS provides for the posting of
solicitations and receipt of applications in a paperless environment
via the Internet. In order to submit applications through IIPS your
business official will need to register at the IIPS Web site. It is
suggested that this registration be completed several days prior to the
date on which you plan to submit the formal application. The Office of
Science will include attachments as part of this notice that provide
the appropriate forms in PDF fillable format that are to be submitted
through IIPS. IIPS offers the option of using multiple files, please
limit submissions to one volume and one file if possible, with a
maximum of no more than four PDF files. Color images should be
submitted in IIPS as a separate file in PDF format and identified as
such. These images should be kept to a minimum due to the limitations
of reproducing them. They should be numbered and referred to in the
body of the technical scientific proposal as Color image 1, Color image
2, etc. Questions regarding the operation of IIPS may be e-mailed to
the IIPS Help Desk at: helpdesk@pr.doe.gov or you may call the help
desk at: (800) 683-0751. Further information on the use of IIPS by the
Office of Science is available at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html
.
If you are unable to submit the application through IIPS, please
contact the Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science at: (301)
903-5212 or (301) 903-3604, in order to gain assistance for submission
through IIPS or to receive special approval and instruction on how to
submit printed applications.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: DOE's Office of Science, in order to
accomplish its mission, is faced with the need for computational
biology capabilities that far exceed what is currently available. In
particular, the Office of Science's needs for its GTL program are
documented at the DOE Genomics: GTL Web site: http://www.doegenomestolife.org/
The goals of the GTL program are:
Identify the protein machines that carry out
critical life functions;
Characterize the gene regulatory networks that
control these machines;
Explore the functional repertoire of complex
microbial communities in their natural environments to provide a
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foundation for understanding and using their remarkably diverse
capabilities to address DOE missions; and
Develop the computational capabilities to
integrate and understand these data and begin to model complex
biological systems.
This solicitation announces ASCR's interest in receiving
applications for institutes for the advancement of computational
biology research and education, serving two complementary objectives:
Computational Biology Research: Developing new
computational approaches to support the Office of Science's missions in
microbial biology and GTL: and
Computational Biology Education: Developing and
implementing programs to educate biologists in the use of computation
as a principal tool for biological research and discovery.
As integrated activities are sought, applicants should craft
applications that respond to both of these objectives, rather than
selecting just one.
With regard to the computational biology research objective, the
proposed activity should provide an intellectual home for a scientific
community carrying out research enabling the solution of cutting-edge
biology problems. Activities should be designed to support
interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations. Activities
should embrace interdisciplinary teams of researchers, drawn from the
physical and life sciences, computational mathematics and computer
science. These teams should focus on application development to harness
the power of computational science for the solution of data-intensive
and/or computation-intensive biology problems. No experimental
activities are foreseen. Researchers should draw upon the biological
data available from the GTL community, as well as, the broader
community. The research objectives should focus on advancing
computation as a tool for biological discovery, hypothesis formulation,
and providing guidance to future experimentation.
With regard to the computational biology education objective, the
proposed activity should develop, implement and disseminate materials
for the education of computational biologists at the graduate level.
The education program should be tested through actual prototyping and
use. The courseware developed should cover as broad a spectrum of both
data-intensive and computation-intensive biology problems as possible.
Illustrative examples should be drawn from biology applications of
interest to the Office of Science, to the extent possible.
The proposed activities should include a plan for playing an active
role in maintaining a dialogue with industry, universities, and other
laboratories and centers in order to maximize the dissemination of
information, promote and support technology commercialization, and
avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.
Collaboration
Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with researchers in other
institutions, such as universities, industry, non-profit organizations,
federal laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development
Centers (FFRDCs), including the DOE National Laboratories, where
appropriate, and to include cost sharing wherever feasible. Additional
information on collaboration is available in the Application Guide for
the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program that is available
via the Internet at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/Colab.html
.
Program Funding
It is anticipated that up to $3 million will be available in Fiscal
Year 2004, contingent upon availability of appropriated funds. It is
anticipated that no more than 4 awards will be made. Multiple year
funding is not guaranteed, although applicants may request periods of
performance ranging up to 3 years.
Merit Review
Applications will be subjected to scientific merit review (peer
review) and will be evaluated against the following evaluation
criteria, which are listed in descending order of importance codified
at 10 CFR 605.10(d):
(1) Scientific and/or Technical Merit of the Project,
(2) Appropriateness of the Proposed Method or Approach,
(3) Competency of Applicant's Personnel and Adequacy of Proposed
Resources,
(4) Reasonableness and Appropriateness of the Proposed Budget.
The evaluation under item 1, Scientific and/or Technical Merit of
the Project, will also consider the following elements:
(a) The relevance of the proposed program of computational biology
research and education to the mission of the Office of Science.
(b) The extent to which the focus of the proposed effort is on
advancing computational biology research and education as
counterbalancing and complementary activities to experimental biology--
rather than on computation as a support activity to experimental
biology.
(c) The potential of the proposed project to make a significant
impact on computational biology research and education.
(d) The potential of the proposed project to identify and advance
the development of new research and educational techniques intended to
accelerate the adoption of computation as a principal mode of research
for biologists.
The evaluation under item 2, Appropriateness of the Proposed Method
or Approach, will also consider the following elements:
(a) The degree to which the project adheres to the management
philosophy of integrating both research and education into the project
execution.
(b) The extent to which the project incorporates broad community
(industry/academia/other federal programs) interaction and outreach.
(c) Quality and clarity of proposed work schedule and deliverables.
(d) Extent to which materials developed under this project will be
available to the public (e.g. as ``open source'').
The evaluation under item 3, Competency of Applicant's Personnel
and Adequacy of Proposed Resources, will also consider the following
element: quality of the physical and intellectual environment for both
research and educational activities in computational biology.
The evaluation will include program policy factors, such as the
relevance of the proposed research to the terms of the announcement and
the agency's programmatic needs. Note: External peer reviewers are
selected with regard to both their scientific expertise and the absence
of conflict-of-interest issues. Non-federal reviewers will often be
used, and submission of an application constitutes agreement that this
is acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting institution.
Submission Information
The Project Description must be 20 pages or less, exclusive of
attachments. It must contain an abstract or project summary on a
separate page with the name of the applicant, mailing address, phone,
FAX and e-mail listed. The application must include letters of intent
from collaborators (briefly describing the intended contribution of
each to the research), and short curriculum vitaes for the applicant
and any co-PIs.
Applicants must disclose all information on their current and
pending grants. To provide a consistent
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format for the submission, review and solicitation of grant
applications submitted under this notice, the preparation and
submission of grant applications must follow the guidelines given in
the Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance
Program, 10 CFR Part 605. Access to SC's Financial Assistance
Application Guide is possible via the World Wide Web at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.
DOE is under no
obligation to pay for any costs associated with the preparation or
submission of applications if an award is not made.
The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number for this
program is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP 10
CFR part 605.
Issued in Washington, DC on February 25, 2004.
Martin Rubinstein,
Acting Director, Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science.
[FR Doc. 04-5125 Filed 3-8-04; 8:45 am]
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