[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 5 (Friday, January 8, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1185-1186]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-391]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Science
Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice 99-08; Next
Generation Internet--Research in Basic Technologies
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice inviting research grant applications.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (OASCR)
of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby
announces its interest in receiving applications for the Next
Generation Internet--Research in Basic Technologies program. The Next
Generation Internet (NGI) is a multi-agency federal research and
development program to develop, test, and demonstrate advanced
networking technologies and applications. This particular research
notice invites research applications for innovative, fundamental
networking research to support DOE-specific activities that include,
but are not limited to, very high speed interfaces to connect devices
to networks; protocols and techniques for coordinating multiple,
heterogeneous network-attached devices; software to allow applications
to adapt to changing network conditions; and network performance
characterization.
DATES: Applicants are encouraged to submit a brief preapplication. All
preapplications, referencing Program Notice 99-08, should be received
by DOE by 4:30 P.M., E.S.T., February 12, 1999. A response to the
preapplications discussing the potential program relevance and
encouraging or discouraging a formal application generally will be
communicated within several days of receipt.
Formal applications submitted in response to this notice must be
received by 4:30 P.M., E.S.T., March 31, 1999, in order to be accepted
for merit review and to permit timely consideration for award in fiscal
year 1999.
ADDRESSES: Preapplications, referencing Program Notice 99-08, should be
sent by E-mail to hitchcock@er.doe.gov.
Formal applications, referencing Program Notice 99-08, should be
sent to: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Grants and
Contracts Division, SC-64, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-
1290, ATTN: Program Notice 99-08. This address must also be used when
submitting applications by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, any other
commercial overnight delivery service, or when hand-carried by the
applicant. An original and seven copies of the application must be
submitted.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dan Hitchcock, Office of Science, U.S.
Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290,
telephone: (301) 903-6767, E-mail: hitchcock@er.doe.gov, fax: (301)
903-7774. The full text of Program Notice 99-08 is available via the
Internet using the following web site address: http://www.er.doe.gov/
production/grants/grants.html
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NGI initiative is a multi-agency Federal
research and development (R&D) program that is developing advanced
networking technologies, developing revolutionary applications that
require advanced networking, and demonstrating these capabilities on
[[Page 1186]]
testbeds that are 100 to 1,000 times faster end-to-end than today's
Internet. Partnerships among academia, industry, and governments
(Federal, state, local, and foreign) that will keep the U.S. at the
cutting-edge of information and communications technologies are
encouraged. (Details on submitting applications involving partnerships
can be found in the Application Guide for the Office of Science
Financial Assistance Program referenced below). The strategic R&D
investments are coordinated across the agencies involved and are
focused to produce an environment where advanced networking R&D
breakthroughs are possible. Information concerning NGI can be found at
http://www.ngi.gov/.
Topic Details
DOE's current core programs in network and application research are
intended to enhance the Department's ability to satisfy mission
requirements through advanced technologies such as distributed
computing, national collaboratories, remote access to facilities, and
remote access to petabyte-scale datasets with complex internal
structure. The DOE NGI network research described in this notice will
focus on developing network-aware middleware and application friendly
tools and capabilities for its applications, as well as continuing
research in high speed end system interfaces, network management, and
differentiated services. The objective of this research is to enable
more efficient and smarter use of network resources, as well as to
support higher speeds (that is, end-to-end capacity).
The DOE encourages the submission of applications for innovative,
fundamental networking research. The DOE particularly encourages
research in the following areas:
Congestion and flow control techniques to provide
applications with easy-to-use tools, capabilities, and interfaces that
make efficient use of advanced infrastructure; for example, reliable
ordered multicast.
Multi-gigabit end system interfaces, analyzers, and
switches along with mechanisms to reduce operating system overhead for
data transfers.
Protocols and techniques for coordinating multiple,
heterogeneous network-attached devices.
Techniques to support secure and fair user access to and
use of network resources, provide secure inter-network peering, perform
accounting/costing, and provide secure access to on-line facilities.
Mechanisms to provide application controlled Class of
Service and Quality of Service.
Techniques for IP, ATM, and WDM network monitoring and
analysis.
Application-friendly, network-aware middleware to provide
IP, ATM, and WDM resource and admission control, scheduling,
management, prioritization, accounting (such as bidding and costing),
authentication, analysis, monitoring, assurance and debugging
mechanisms.
A theme common to these research topics is the development of
``network aware'' and infrastructure manipulating software in
middleware, including libraries, system software and tools, that will
be available to the application through easy-to-use-application
interfaces. Research may focus on providing the ``network aware''
middleware support required by DOE applications. These applications
will be heavily collaborative in nature and will concurrently use
distributed resources such as supercomputers, high end storage systems
with extremely large scientific data sets, unique on-line facilities,
and massive, multi-dimensional datasets in tele-immersive environments.
Software tools developed are expected to interoperate with existing
middleware tools as well as those under development.
Program Funding
It is anticipated that up to $2 million will be available for
multiple awards to be made in FY 1999 in the categories described
above, contingent on the availability of appropriated funds.
Applications may request project support up to three years, with out-
year support contingent on the availability of funds, progress of the
research, and programmatic needs. Annual budgets are expected to range
from $200,000 to $300,000 total costs.
Preapplications
A brief preapplication may be submitted. The preapplication should
identify on the cover sheet the institution, Principal Investigator
name, address, telephone, fax and E-mail address, title of the project,
and the field of scientific research. The preapplication should consist
of a two to three page narrative describing the research project
objectives and methods of accomplishment. These will be reviewed
relative to the scope and research needs of the Next Generation
Internet--Research in Basic Technologies Program.
Preapplications are strongly encouraged but not required prior to
submission of a full application. Please note that notification of a
successful preapplication is not an indication that an award will be
made in response to the formal application.
Applications will be subjected to scientific merit review (peer
review) and will be evaluated against the following evaluation criteria
listed in descending order of importance as 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 will include program policy factors such as the
relevance of the proposed research to the terms of the announcement and
an 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 may be used, and
submission of an application constitutes agreement that this is
acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting institution.
Information about the development and submission of applications,
eligibility, limitations, evaluation, selection process, and other
policies and procedures may be found in 10 CFR Part 605, and in the
Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance
Program. Electronic access to the Guide and required forms is made
available via the World Wide Web at: http://www.er.doe.gov/production/
grants/grants.html. The Project Description must be 20 pages or less,
exclusive of attachments. The application must contain an abstract or
project summary, letters of intent from collaborators, and short
vitaes.
(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 December 22, 1998.
John Rodney Clark,
Associate Director of Science for Resource Management.
[FR Doc. 99-391 Filed 1-7-99; 8:45 am]
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