FAQs

There are limitations to the number of submissions from a given organization. Please refer to the solicitation document for more information.

Yes, it is required that a DOE National Laboratory be a partner on the project to leverage existing expertise and capabilities. All national laboratories are eligible to participate in individual projects.

If you have a laboratory partner in mind you may state that in the concept paper. If you do not specify a laboratory partner, HPC4EI will conduct a search of interested DOE National Laboratory PIs with the expertise needed for your project. List will be provided if concept paper is selected for full proposal stage or recommended to submit to future call.

Eligibility is limited to U.S. manufacturers, defined as entities that are incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a particular state or territory of the United States, and that manufacture products in the United States or that manufacture, distribute, or otherwise deploy software and hardware systems as described above or that develop and/or manufacture new or modified materials in the United States. Project work must be executed in the United States.

U.S. universities, institutes, and other non-profit organizations are also eligible to participate as collaborators. Applicants are highly encouraged to partner with universities and non-profit organizations located within federally-designated Opportunity Zones and/or Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Funding for university and/or non-profit participants may be provided by the National Laboratory or the industrial partner. Funding provided to a university and/or non-profit by the industrial partner can be considered a component of the industrial partner’s in-kind funding contribution.

DOE National Labs are not eligible to submit projects, but could be listed as a partner on proposal submitted by a US Manufacturing firm.

Absolutely. It is actually encouraged, as the impact would be assumed to be broader.

Eligibility is limited to U.S. manufacturers, defined as entities that are incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a particular State or territory of the United States, and which manufactures products in the United States. Foreign-owned subsidiaries that manufacture in the U.S. may apply but must go through an additional review as part of the DOE CRADA process if selected.

No exact number has been established. The projects should state what is needed.

The laboratory partners provide both computing cycles, as well as a scientist to work on project in applying HPC to the stated goals.

No. Each lab maintains hundreds of codes with different capabilities. For any project, the problem would be analyzed to understand what lab code would best meet the needs of the project. It is also worth noting that the industry partners may have their own codes that would be used. In addition, commercially available codes could be used.

Yes, applicants are encouraged to reach out to national laboratory experts. Applicants can reach out to their lab collaborators or a DOE National Point of Contact for assistance with national laboratory's HPC system capabilities and subject matter experts.

The cost share can be "in-kind," e.g., supporting the industry staff to collaborate with the national labs on the project.

Standard lab overheads are applied to the costs of the lab efforts. On average, you can expect a 50% level of effort from a lab scientist for a year and as well as the needed HPC computer time.

This is dependent on many things. Sometimes the industry or labs already have licenses that could be used. If licenses are not available, then they must be purchased by one of the partners

Applicants can utilize existing licenses at participating institutions. If they do not exist, they should be purchased, with cost estimates reflected in the proposal budget table.

While verification and validation of the project results is key to the success of the proposal, the project focus is on application national lab expertise to the industry. If costs were minimal, less than 10% of the project budget, it may be considered. Alternatively, the industry cost share could be used to cover experimentation needed for validation of results.

DOE funding is intended to support national laboratory staff and time on HPC systems to address U.S. manufacturing industry challenges. U.S. manufacturing industry, as well as for profit and nonprofit organizations that support them, cannot receive direct funding from this solicitation.

Funding for university and/or non-profit participants may be provided by the National Laboratory or the industrial partner. Funding provided to a university and/or non-profit by the industrial partner can be considered a component of the industrial partner’s in-kind funding contribution. DOE funding to the university must not exceed 50% of the total DOE funds.

Funding Requirements

The DOE monetary contribution for each project will not exceed $400,000. For new initial (not follow-on) projects, an industry partner must provide a participant contribution of at least 20% of the total project funding to support industry expertise to the project. Total project funding is defined as the DOE contribution plus the contributions (in-kind and cash) from the industry partner. Cash contributions are funds supplied by the industry partner to collaborators external to the company. The participant contribution can take the form of monetary funds in or “in-kind” contributions and must come from non-federal sources unless otherwise allowed by law. For follow-on projects, defined as a project that is using the results of a previously funded project within the HPC4EI portfolio, the industry contribution is 20% of the total project funding of which at least half of this amount is a cash contribution. Sample budgets are shown below. Total project size cannot exceed $500,000. DOE funding will be provided to the National Laboratory (or laboratories) in support of their work under the HPC4EI Program.

Sample Budgets

Project (New project; total project funding of $500K)

Follow-on Implementation Projects (Uses results from a previously funded project; total project funding of $500K)

The participant contribution cannot come from another federal source, unless otherwise allowed by law.

In the two previous solicitation rounds, the success rate was approximately 25%.

Existing proprietary information can be included in, as well as generated by the project and will be protected by the terms of the DOE Model Short Form CRADA (industry) or a sub-contract (academia). Please note that the abstract should not possess proprietary information. To the extent possible, the proposal should not contain proprietary information.

Industry members submitting a proposal to the solicitation are expected to sign a DOE Model Short Form CRADA.

The HPC4EI programs are specifically designed for short-term projects with a need for accelerated placement and execution. To accommodate this, the HPC4EI programs has adopted the DOE Model Short Form CRADA, which was designed with favorable terms allowable within DOE guidelines. Awardees are expected to enter into a DOE Model Short Form CRADA, as is, with the national laboratory or laboratories that will be performing the work.

Clarifications can be requested through hpc4ei [at] llnl.gov (hpc4ei[at]llnl[dot]gov). Objections to the Terms and Conditions of the CRADA can be noted within the Concept Paper; however, this could lead to delays in processing, and/or rejection of your proposal.

V&V are included in the scope of the project. Specific requirements (e.g., ASME V&V standards) are not defined, but best practices relative to the size of the project are encouraged.

Model validation methods are determined by the project participants. Models are often validated against experimental data collected by the companies for their process or product. Unique code can be validated using standard techniques.