Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the largest multi-program science and energy laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.

As part of the original University Partnerships vision, ORNL established a founding group of core partners with the major southeastern research universities, including UVA. Each core partner university has two formal linkages to ORNL: 1) a seat on the Board of Governors and S&T Committee, and a 2) Core University Liaison. ORNL and the core universities work together through the team of University Liaisons. UVA's ORNL Liaison serves as PI on the ORNL Liaison grant and is responsible for the ORNL-UVA Travel Fund Program, which provides funding to faculty, students, and staff in support of the ORNL-UVA relationship.

ORNL-UVA TRAVEL GRANTS PROGRAM

The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to offer a program which provides travel grants for students, faculty, and research staff visiting Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) to use ORNL’s world class user facilities and/or to collaborate with ORNL scientists. The travel grants are intended to facilitate short- and medium-term visits to the Lab, with the goal of establishing long-term collaborations. A short description of these facilities is included below, along with descriptions of several funding mechanisms that support student research at ORNL.

Each travel grant will reimburse up to $3000 for travel, lodging at the ORNL Guest House and per diem expenses. Graduate students and research staff must apply through their faculty advisor.

To apply, faculty members should send an email to ORNL-UVA@virginia.edu with:

Name and title of the traveler
Department of the traveler
Dates of travel
Estimated travel costs: Please provide a breakdown by line item along with any relevant comments/justification
Short (no more than 1-2 paragraph) description of the purpose of travel
Copy of an email from one of the ORNL user facilities notifying you that your proposal was approved.
Copy of an e-mail exchange with an ORNL staff scientist/technical contact regarding your planned visit. Your e-mail exchange must be copied to the ORNL Technical Project Officer Moody Altamimi at altamimime@ornl.gov. The same e-mail exchange must document the discussion that the traveler (or the faculty advisor applying for the grant on behalf of the traveler) had in advance with the ORNL staff scientist/technical contact to confirm that he/she is aware of the agreed upon specific travel dates to ORNL and that research activities for the same travel dates at ORNL have been scheduled.

Please be aware of and follow UVA’s travel reimbursement policies when planning your travel and estimating your travel expenses:

Grants will be considered and awarded on a rolling basis as long as funds are available. If your travel grant is approved, you will receive instructions for reimbursement of your travel expenses.

ORNL USER FACILITIES

Neutron Sciences

Proposals for beam time at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) are accepted twice a year, typically in the spring and fall. Specific information about the call for proposals and about each of the instruments available is included on the ORNL Neutron Sciences web site.

Before submitting a proposal for a specific instrument, please contact the appropriate instrument scientist to make sure your research is feasible for that instrument. A list of instruments can be found here. No sample proposals are available on the website, but you can ask instrument scientists for sample proposals.

Nanophase Materials Sciences

Proposals for access to research capabilities at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) for user-initiated nanoscience research are accepted twice a year, typically in May and October. Specific information about the call for proposals and CNMS capabilities can be found here.

Contact information for CNMS scientific staff, organized by research capability area, can be found via this link. You should contact the appropriate staff member regarding your proposal. You can see a sample proposal here.

Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

The resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) are allocated via projects. The type of project request (listed below) will determine the application and review procedure. Approved projects will be granted a project allocation of core-hours for a period of time on one or more OLCF systems.

INCITE

The Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program invites proposals for large-scale, computationally intensive research projects to run at the OLCF. The INCITE program awards sizeable allocations on some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to address grand challenges in science and engineering. There is an annual call for INCITE proposals, typically in April with a June deadline. For more information please visit http://www.doeleadershipcomputing.org or to submit a proposal visit https://proposals.doeleadershipcomputing.org/allocations/login.do

ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC)

The ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC) is open to scientists from the research community in national laboratories, academia, and industry. The ALCC program allocates computational resources at the OLCF for special situations of interest to the Department with an emphasis on high-risk, high-payoff simulations in areas directly related to the Department’s energy mission in areas such as advancing the clean energy agenda and understanding the Earth’s climate, for national emergencies, or for broadening the community of researchers capable of using leadership computing resources. Applications are typically due in early February. For more information please visit http://science.energy.gov/ascr/facilities/accessing-ascr-facilities/alcc.

Director’s Discretion (DD)

Director’s Discretion (DD) projects are dedicated to leadership computing preparation, INCITE and ALCC scaling, and application performance to maximize scientific application efficiency and productivity on leadership computing platforms. The OLCF Resource Utilization Council, as well as independent referees, review and approve all DD requests. Applications are accepted year round.

FUNDING MECHANISMS THAT SUPPORT STUDENT RESEARCH AT ORNL

Some example funding mechanisms that can support UVA graduate students conducting research in collaboration with ORNL are listed below. All of these mechanisms require substantial interaction and collaboration with an ORNL scientist well in advance of applying for funding. Please contact ORNL-UVA@virginia.edu to learn more about these funding mechanisms.