Theoretical Research in Magnetic Fusion Energy Science | DE FOA 00001757

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 00001757

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, through its Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program, offered this grant opportunity to support new and renewal projects focused on theoretical and computational research that advances the U.S. magnetic fusion energy sciences program. The intent is to fund research that improves the scientific understanding and predictive capability needed for magnetically confined plasmas, with an emphasis on theory, modeling, and computation rather than hardware development. Awards made under this announcement were planned for Fiscal Year 2018, contingent on Congressional appropriations, meaning selection did not guarantee funding unless funds were ultimately available.

The funding mechanism is a discretionary grant (Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0001757), categorized under science and technology and other research and development, with CFDA number 81.049. Eligibility was described as unrestricted, effectively open to a broad range of applicant types as long as they met any additional eligibility conditions described in the full announcement. The FOA was posted on June 16, 2017, and had an original application deadline of August 18, 2017, establishing a roughly two-month window for proposal preparation and submission.

Financially, the opportunity listed an award ceiling of $2,000,000 per award, with an expectation of about 10 total awards. In practical terms, that suggests a competitive program intended to support a limited set of projects at meaningful scale, likely ranging from single-investigator efforts to multi-institution collaborations, depending on scope and budget justification. Because the call explicitly covered both new and renewal applications, it was designed to both seed promising new lines of theoretical and computational research and maintain continuity for productive, ongoing efforts aligned with FES priorities.

Scientifically, the FOA highlighted five topical areas that map directly onto core challenges in magnetic fusion research. First, macroscopic stability covers large-scale plasma behavior and the conditions under which plasmas remain stable versus developing disruptive instabilities, an area central to reliable tokamak and stellarator operation. Second, confinement and transport targets the mechanisms that govern how heat, particles, and momentum move through plasma, including turbulence and related transport processes that set overall performance and determine whether a device can achieve and sustain fusion-relevant conditions. Third, boundary physics focuses on the plasma edge, scrape-off layer, and interactions with material surfaces, where plasma exhaust, impurity control, and heat flux management are critical for both performance and component survivability.

The fourth area combines plasma heating with non-inductive current drive, addressing how external systems deposit energy into the plasma and how currents can be driven without relying on transformer action, a requirement for steady-state operation in many fusion concepts. Research here typically involves modeling wave-plasma interactions, radio-frequency and microwave heating methods, and current drive efficiency and profile control. The fifth area, energetic particles, deals with high-energy ions and electrons produced by auxiliary heating or by fusion reactions themselves, and how these particles interact with collective plasma waves and instabilities; this topic is essential because energetic particle-driven instabilities can degrade confinement, redistribute fast ions, and reduce heating effectiveness.

Overall, the opportunity aimed to strengthen the theoretical and computational foundations of magnetic fusion energy by supporting proposals that address these priority topics and contribute to improved understanding, validated models, and predictive simulations that can guide experiments and the design and operation of future fusion facilities.

• 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 "Theoretical Research in Magnetic Fusion Energy 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 Jun 16, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 18, 2017. (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 $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 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.

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