Stanford Research Development Office

DOE Energy Frontier Research Centers

Note: The solicitation-specific information on this page is based on the 2024 FOA (DE-FOA-0003258) released January 22, 2024. New calls are expected every two years, subject to change. (Most recent content update: February 28, 2024)

Program Snapshot

DOE Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) are major, multi-disciplinary and multi-institution, basic research programs funded by the Department of Energy. EFRCs address big scientific questions that if solved will have a big impact on society and provide a great mechanism to support collaborative research in energy-relevant fields. The EFRC program aims to advance fundamental understanding of chemical sciences, materials sciences, geosciences, and biosciences that is relevant to addressing our biggest challenges in clean energy and climate, advanced and low-carbon manufacturing, and other priority areas such as quantum information science. EFRC basic research will continue to support cross-DOE initiatives including the Energy Earthshots.

Awards are expected to be from $2-4M per year for 4 years with possibility of renewal in subsequent competitions.

Information from DOE

Details, latest updates and related links are available on the DOE Basic Energy Sciences (BES) funding opportunities page and on grants.gov.

Stanford and SLAC Limited Submissions

This is a Limited Submission funding opportunity. An institution-wide internal selection process is required prior to proposal submission to DOE. Only two pre-applications may be submitted by any one organization as the lead institution. Stanford and SLAC will each perform their own internal selection, using the same deadlines and requested materials.

The internal deadline is February 7, 2024. More information on the selection and submission process is available through the Stanford Funding Opportunities portal.

For questions about the limited submissions process, please email:

Timeline

  • February 1, 2024: Informational webinar from DOE (slides and video)
  • February 7, 2024: Internal proposal due to VPDoR or SLAC Limited Submissions
  • February 28, 2024: Required pre-applications from internally selected teams due to DOE*
    • For Stanford, required submission through OSR 3 business days before deadline
    • For SLAC, required submission into DOE PAMS 1 business day before deadline
  • May 8, 2024: Encouraged full applications due to DOE*
    • For Stanford, please follow all OSR proposal submission deadlines
    • For SLAC, please follow all SLAC PAO team submisison deadlines

Proposal Support and Resources

This list will be updated as new resources become available.

For proposal support, consultations, or EFRC-related questions please contact

  • Kim Baeten, Director of Research Development, Stanford University
  • Steve Eglash, Director of the Applied Energy Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory