Scientific Collaborations at Extreme-Scale

The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby invites applications for research and development that represents transformational advances in scientific collaboration systems and distributed data systems addressing the fundamental challenges related to extreme-scale science collaborations. Scientific grand challenges in the next decade in areas such as combustion modeling, climate science, energy generation, bio-remediation processes, and material structure aging will usher in the era of extreme-scale science. Increasingly these challenges may only be solved by multi-disciplinary teams working with unique scientific instruments, exascale class computers, and/or handling extreme amounts of data. To meet these challenges these teams will need a distributed science environment that promotes scientific collaboration and resource sharing. Scientists currently rely on basic, and fairly primitive, tools and services designed for social networking and commercial activities to carry out simple collaboration tasks. However, these primitive collaboration tools are proving to be inadequate for large-scale scientific efforts involving the sharing of massive data sets or complex instruments, among thousands of distributed researchers. The focus of this announcement is on transformative approaches to understanding and/or enabling scientific collaborations at a scale not possible with today?s knowledge or using current Internet-based services and tools. The full text of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is located on FedConnect. Instructions for completing the Grant Application Package are contained in the full text of the FOA which can be obtained at: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0000695&agency=DOE A companion Program Announcement for DOE National Laboratories (LAB 12-695) will be posted on the Office of Science Grants and Contracts web site at: Http://www.science.doe.gov/grants/pdf/LAB_12-695.pdf