Learn about funding opportunity changes, get ready for AGU and the Joint Meeting, and more
This month, we want to focus on a critical topic for our research community: funding opportunity announcements—or, as they are now referred to, Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs).
We are excited to announce that the FY2025 ASR funding opportunity was released on November 4. Below are the key details and important deadlines:
- The notice of funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0003484) can be found here: https://science.osti.gov/ber/Funding-Opportunities
- Pre-application due date: January 7, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET
- Pre-application response from DOE: January 24, 2025
- Submission Deadline for Applications: February 27, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET
When preparing your research proposals, please concentrate on observational, data analysis, and/or modeling studies that utilize DOE’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program-supported observations, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. Proposals need to address one of the following research topics:
- Atmospheric processes: Research using ARM’s Coast-Urban-Rural Atmospheric Gradient Experiment (CoURAGE)
- High latitude and Southern Ocean atmospheric processes: Explore using ARM observations in these regions
For detailed information, visit the link to the announcement PDF provided above.
Success is in the Details
When preparing your research proposals, we want to stress the importance of meticulously following all the application requirements and ensuring you know about changes this year.
We want to see you succeed, and it is disheartening when otherwise exciting submissions falter due to avoidable mistakes. Whether overlooking instructions or missing an essential requirement, errors can cost you in the competitive review process.
While PIs often focus on the science being solicited in the funding opportunity, the required elements listed in the document are just as essential—and are what your office of sponsored research will be focusing on. Here are just a few examples:
- Pre-application Requirements: Formats are now carefully prescribed to make pre-applications more structured and easier to write and review. Pre-applications must have a cover page and must address objectives/goals/science questions, background/knowledge gaps/justification, methods/approach/use of ARM data, and NOFO & topic relevance. The new format and requirements are carefully spelled out in the NOFO. We do not recommend using a previous year’s pre-application as a template for this year.
- Machine Searchability: Applications and pre-applications must be machine-searchable and readable. A scanned image of a document does not meet this requirement, and an encrypted one probably will not either.
- Thoughtful PIER Plan: Provide a well-considered response in your Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research (PIER) Plan. Thoughtful PIER plans are rarely just a few sentences.
- Transparency on Conflicts of Interest: Disclose potential conflicts of interest upfront and include them in the proper format to avoid complications later. Every year, we have to pull back proposals from conflicted reviewers because PIs do not supply their conflicts of interest in a standard, searchable format. Recommended formats and instructions for whom to include are provided in each NOFO. A list of conflicts of interest must be included with both the pre-application and the application itself. This list is almost never empty.
- ARM Observations must play an integral role in your proposal. Other data may be used to supplement them.
- Knowledge Gaps and Hypotheses or Questions: Applications must clearly delineate knowledge gaps limiting the understanding of fundamental atmospheric processes, propose specific science questions and/or testable hypotheses to resolve these knowledge gaps, and explain how the results of the proposed research are expected to lead to improved atmospheric predictability.
- Data Management Plans must describe plans for sharing the data that are to be acquired during the proposed research, particularly how the acquired data will be preserved, documented, and quality assured, and where it will be archived for access by others.
- Changes to a Proposal Team: Teaming arrangements may change between the submission of the pre-application and the final application. We understand this, so letting us know about changes in team members, institutions, or application titles can prevent unnecessary complications.
- Other requirements: Searching for the words “must” and “should” will reveal many of the requirements in the NOFO. This is a good idea, but nothing can beat a careful reading of the NOFO.
Additional requirements are detailed in the NOFO. The format is different this year, and while the bullet points above help highlight some things, the NOFO is far more detailed and is the defining legal document. Please read it carefully and work with your sponsored research office to ensure that your application includes everything it should.
Mark Your Calendars!
Plan to attend the 2025 ARM/ASR Joint Meeting March 3-6, 2025, at the Rockville Hilton Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Rockville, Maryland, or online. While our general expectation is that a representative from each funded ASR project will participate, we recognize that the timing does not work for each team every year. Please let us know if you are a funded ASR PI and cannot attend.
The ARM/ASR Joint Meeting brings together more than 300 ASR scientists, ARM users, and ARM infrastructure staff to discuss priorities for ASR research and the ARM User Facility. We want you to be a part of these conversations. You will soon have an opportunity to submit breakout session requests. Please watch the ASR webpage for the meeting links and start developing your session ideas.
Our 2025 ARM/ASR Joint Meeting page has more information and will be updated as additional deadline and registration information is available.
Sharing Your Research
We’ve addressed this before in this column, but we need your research highlights. For every journal article, we expect to receive a research highlight and a slide that clearly communicates your findings to the DOE and the broader scientific community. PPTX format slides are especially helpful.
Moreover, if your science isn’t represented in our database, it’s much harder for us to promote your excellent work. We use these highlights to present your results to upper management at DOE and when responding to very short turnaround requests from Congress and upper management. Your submissions help us advocate for the whole community! You may submit and search highlights here: https://asr.science.energy.gov/science/highlights
Getting Ready for AGU 2024
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2024 Annual Meeting is quickly approaching, and we’re excited to see you and your science. If your talk or poster draws on ASR-funded research or uses ARM data, please share your abstract with us using the simple form on the ASR website.
Our busy communications folks have already pre-loaded AGU titles and author lists, so you only need to use the form to search for your name or any keywords from the title of your abstract to generate a list of matching abstracts. From there, simply find yours from the list and check a box to identify whether your abstract should be affiliated with ARM, ASR, and/or SBIR/STTR. Then, admit to not being a robot and click the submit button.
That’s it! If you actually programmed an Arduino to click the checkbox for you, we will not be held responsible for what might happen.
Our 2024 AGU presentations page already has a few ASR-oriented sessions, but we know many more are out there. Please identify yours!
Let’s work together to maximize the visibility of your work and ensure that it gets the attention it deserves—from your proposals and research highlights to your presentations.
Phew! That’s a lot! There will be a quiz next week.
# # #Author: Shaima Nasiri and Jeff Stehr, ASR Program Managers, U.S. Department of Energy
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through the Biological and Environmental Research program as part of the Atmospheric System Research program.