The Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program at Berkeley Lab continues to produce cutting edge research for the Department of Energy and the nation. For the FY22 cycle, the response to the LDRD Call for Proposals remained strong, with 160 total proposals submitted. This year, 99 LDRD projects are being funded at a total value of $24.1M. In addition, the Lab expects to fund several off-cycle projects during the year.
The Lab’s scientific leadership reviewed each proposal under one of three funding tracks: Lab Initiative, Early Career Development, or Area Priority.
The Lab Initiative funding track, brought back after a one year hiatus, is funding projects related to Negative Emissions Science and Technology (NEST).
The Early Career Development (ECD) track, which was developed in FY17 to provide a financial runway to allow early career scientists (no more than seven years removed from their Ph.D.) a two-year period to work on ideas they can turn into proposals for either direct DOE programmatic funding or the DOE Early Career Award program. The goal is to provide a path for early career scientists to become independent scientists and principal investigators (PIs). In FY22, the Lab is funding six new PIs, in addition to the six continuing from FY21.
The LDRD Early Career Development (ECD) track has been recognized by the DOE; similar programs have sprung up at other locations in the DOE National Lab system.
Finally, Area Priority projects were selected with input from each proposal’s direct Division and Associate Lab Director with focus on topics that were of significant and targeted relevance to their Divisions and Area. View the list of all FY22 LDRD projects and PIs.
For more information about the FY23 LDRD application process and deadlines, visit the Lab’s LDRD webpage at: http://www2.lbl.gov/DIR/LDRD/cfp/index.html. Proposals are due into the online submission database by March 25.