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10 November 2005

LCSGA and GDE Outline R&D Proposal Process for FY2006

The Linear Collider Steering Group of the Americas and the International Linear Collider Global Design Effort are now soliciting proposals for U.S. university-based detector and accelerator R&D for FY2006. The review committees welcome continuing and new proposals for ILC related projects.

Jim Brau

This year the ILC accelerator R&D projects will adopt the umbrella grant proposal process, following the model currently in place for the ILC detector R&D projects. Under the new guidelines for ILC accelerator R&D, a single university will submit umbrella grant proposals for ILC R&D to both DOE and NSF. Approved projects will be funded through the prime contract university, who will then distribute subcontracts to the institutions responsible for the work.

"The umbrella grant proposal process creates a coordinated R&D effort that can prioritize the program from the community perspective," said physicist Jim Brau of the University of Oregon, who is coordinating the ILC detector R&D proposal process. "This process will keep all proposals under a single program, allowing the experts in the community to make the relative assessments of the merits based on the established R&D priorities."

The accelerator and detector R&D projects will use the same proposal systems, but the two areas of the machine do have different deadlines and review boards. For continuing DOE or NSF detector R&D projects, the deadline to submit a status report is 15 December 2005. For new detector R&D projects, the deadline to submit a project description is also 15 December 2005. The Linear Collider Steering Group of the Americas (formerly known as the U.S. Linear Collider Steering Group) will conduct a review of all submitted detector projects - continuing and new. The DOE and NSF will then evaluate the recommendations of the LCSGA review.

Gerry Dugan

"On the detector R&D side, we are in the first year of a three-year umbrella grant through the University of Oregon that supports 25 universities", Brau said. "The call now is for proposals for the second year of work under that program that will be funded jointly by the DOE and NSF. In most cases, there will be continuations or even expanded funding for the current projects, but we also anticipate some new proposals."

For new university-based accelerator R&D projects, the deadline to submit a project description and your institution's letter of commitment is 6 January 2006. For continuing DOE or NSF accelerator R&D projects, the deadline to submit a progress report and your institution's letter of commitment is also 6 January 2006.

The Americas Regional Team (ART) of the GDE will conduct a review of all new submitted accelerator projects and the current ongoing grants. This review will assess the importance of the proposed research in the overall context of the ILC R&D program, and will result in a prioritization of projects and continuing grants that will be provided to the DOE and NSF.

"We welcome new proposals", said GDE Regional Director for the Americas Gerry Dugan. "The Americas Regional Team will review every accelerator R&D proposal and rank them according to what is most pertinent to ILC R&D. The funding agencies will take these recommendations into account when they are making the decisions on which projects will be funded by the DOE and NSF."

George Gollin

Questions about the proposal process for accelerator R&D should be directed to Gerry Dugan (gfd1@cornell.edu) or George Gollin (g-gollin@mail.physics.uiuc.edu). For information about the detector R&D process, contact Jim Brau (jimbrau@faraday.uoregon.edu). All three coordinators are focused on bringing the accelerator and detector R&D proposal processes closer together. "It is important that we try to keep the two different aspects of the machine from becoming separate efforts," said George Gollin of the University of Illinois. "If any part of the proposal process seems confusing, contact one of us, because we can help you figure it out. The most important thing is to prepare the project descriptions now."

More detailed information about the accelerator proposal process is available online at http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~dugan/LC/University/.
Information about the detector proposal process is available online at http://physics.uoregon.edu/~lc/lcdrd/.

--Elizabeth Clements