Joint Directed Research and Development Program
2012 JDRD Call for Proposals
August 29, 2011
The Science Alliance will invest approximately $400K in 8–10 new JDRD projects in 2012.
The Science Alliance was formed to build and enhance relationships between faculty at UTK and researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
For the past six years the center has conducted the Joint Directed Research and Development program (JDRD), which complements the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program (LDRD) at ORNL. The LDRD is a Department of Energy program that encourages multi-program DOE laboratories such as ORNL to select a limited number of projects with the potential to position the lab for scientific and technical leadership in future national initiatives.
The JDRD program aims to identify and support complementary areas of UTK research. The JDRD program also places a priority on fostering new interactions between UTK and ORNL, in new scientific or engineering areas, which otherwise would not be possible.
The list of the new LDRD projects to be funded for FY12, as well as the renewal projects with 2 expected years remaining is posted here. If there is a project on this list that is complementary to your own research and you wish to explore a potential partnership with the PI of that project, please contact him or her to discuss the possibility. If you and the ORNL principal investigator of an awarded LDRD project agree that a partnership is possible, you may apply for Science Alliance funding to support your complementary research with the LDRD investigator.
Proposals are funded for one year; a second year of funding is also possible if the project has strong promise for receiving new external funding as a result of the JDRD activities, and is deemed meritorious in the second year's proposal evaluation process. A Science Alliance appointed advisory committee will review the proposals and make recommendations for funding. Evaluation criteria for proposals include the following:
- Technical merit of the proposal
- Opportunities for faculty members to establish new collaborations at ORNL
- Prospects for future external funding
- Inclusion of graduate and undergraduate students in the research
- Proposals that are especially timely or strategic for UT Knoxville
All UTK faculty who have a 100% appointment at UTK are eligible to submit proposals, including faculty who have had previous ORNL collaborations. Faculty who have a joint appointment with ORNL will not receive priority in funding.
Awarded projects will be started on or about January 1, 2012, although a later start date is possible if it is difficult to find students or postdocs by January 1.
JDRD Point of Contact
Lynne E. Parker
865 974-4394 or 865-974-6765