The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced funding for universities, businesses, and a national laboratory totaling $9.96 million on August 23rd, 2023. The funding will be used to support basic plasma science and engineering research in addition to frontier plasma science experiments at multiple midscale DOE Collaborative Research Facilities (CRFs) across the country.
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A DOE national laboratory, four private companies, and 20 universities will all get financing. This will encompass 30 awards meant to boost research output and US researchers’ involvement in CRFs while supporting fundamental plasma science research. The grants can be used for three-year studies with a single investigator or a small group as well as one-time, short-term seed financing initiatives.
Basic and low temperature plasma science is an important area with many scientific and technological impacts. The research funded under this FOA will enable the US research community to address many fundamental and technological science challenges helping to ensure continued American leadership in this critical field.
Jean Paul Allain, Associate Director, Science for Fusion Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy
At several DOE CRFs located at the University of California Los Angeles, DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and General Atomics in San Diego, the funding supports cutting-edge research in fundamental plasma science and engineering as well as the research initiatives of external collaborators. The facilities have already granted experimental runtime to the American researchers chosen for financing under this initiative.
Awards were made based on competitive peer review under the DOE Funding Opportunity Announcements titled “Research in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering” and “Research on General Plasma Science Collaborative Research Facilities,” which were sponsored by the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences’ (FES) General Plasma Science Program within the Department of Science.
For projects lasting one to three years, funding totals $9.96 million in fiscal year 2023 dollars. The FES webpage has a list of projects under the name “Topical Funding Opportunity Awards.”