High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasma Science | DE FOA 0002088

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002088

The Department of Energy (DOE), through the Office of Science (specifically the Fusion Energy Sciences program, or FES), together with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Defense Programs (DP), offered this grant opportunity to support new research awards under their joint program in high-energy-density (HED) laboratory plasma science. The program is aimed at funding fundamental and applied research that improves the scientific understanding of plasmas under extreme conditions, including regimes relevant to fusion energy science, laboratory astrophysics, and national security missions where matter is driven to very high temperatures, pressures, and energy densities. The announcement makes clear that applicants seeking new funding in Fiscal Year 2019 were expected to apply through this specific Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), indicating it served as the primary entry point for new awards in that funding cycle.

The FOA, titled "High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasma Science" (Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0002088), falls under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category and uses the grant mechanism as its funding instrument. It is a discretionary opportunity administered by the DOE Office of Science. The CFDA listing associated with it is 81.049. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning a wide range of applicant types could apply (universities, national laboratories, nonprofits, companies, or other entities), as long as they met any additional constraints stated in the full FOA text.

Research topics were organized into several specific areas of interest. First, HED hydrodynamics covers how dense plasmas and materials flow, compress, and evolve under extreme drive conditions, including shock formation, instabilities, and turbulence that affect experiments and models. Second, magnetized HED plasma physics focuses on the role of magnetic fields in high-energy-density environments, such as how magnetization changes transport, confinement, stability, and energy coupling in strongly driven plasmas. Third, nonlinear optics of plasmas and laser-plasma interactions targets the complex ways intense laser light propagates through and couples energy into plasma, including parametric instabilities, self-focusing, filamentation, and other nonlinear processes that can either enable or degrade performance in HED experiments. Fourth, relativistic HED plasmas and intense beam physics emphasizes regimes where particle energies become relativistic and where high-intensity particle or photon beams interact with matter, creating extreme states and generating secondary radiation, fast particles, and strong fields. Fifth, high-Z, multiply ionized HED atomic physics supports work on the atomic-scale behavior of heavy elements (high atomic number materials) in very hot, dense conditions, where detailed ionization balance, opacity, radiation emission, and line-shape physics become critical for diagnosing experiments and for accurate simulation.

From a funding and planning standpoint, the FOA listed an award ceiling of $250,000 and anticipated making about 7 awards. The opportunity was posted with a creation date of February 21, 2019, and had an original closing date of April 22, 2019. The description also flags an important procedural constraint: there were limitations on how many applications could be submitted on behalf of a single principal investigator, with the details located in Section III, Part D of the FOA. In practical terms, that note signals that applicants needed to plan submissions carefully, particularly if a PI was involved in multiple proposals, to avoid disqualification or administrative rejection based on submission limits.

• The Department of Energy - Office of Science, Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasma Science" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.049.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 21, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 22, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for DE FOA 0002088

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