Fiscal Year 2019 Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research | DE FOA 0001913

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0001913

The Fiscal Year 2019 Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0001913) is a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) competitive solicitation aimed at accelerating research, development, and enabling infrastructure for advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycle technologies. The central purpose is to support crosscutting nuclear energy R&D that can significantly improve performance, safety, and deployment readiness of next-generation reactor and fuel cycle concepts while making efficient use of federal resources. DOE-NE frames this as part of a broader strategy to move innovative nuclear technologies closer to market by funding work that addresses key technical barriers and strengthens the national research base.

A major theme in the opportunity is alignment with real-world needs identified by the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN). GAIN has engaged with advanced reactor developers and the broader design community to pinpoint R&D objectives that can be tackled effectively through DOE programs. As a result, the opportunity encourages proposals that are practical and developer-relevant, particularly those that can produce measurements, material data, experiments, validation datasets, or testing approaches that reflect the conditions advanced reactor companies actually face. DOE-NE explicitly highlights interest in work applicable to fast-spectrum reactor developers (including lead-cooled, sodium-cooled, and gas-cooled concepts), molten salt reactors (MSRs), and high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). Proposals that are flexible and broadly useful across multiple designs, or that can be adapted to different reactor environments, are especially encouraged.

The solicitation also emphasizes collaborative, integrated research efforts. DOE-NE signals a preference for projects that connect national laboratories, universities, industry partners, and in some cases international collaborators, with the intent of leveraging specialized capabilities and avoiding duplication. Under this approach, DOE-NE maintains a balanced R&D portfolio by using both competitive awards (like this FOA) and non-competitive/direct mechanisms when needed. The competitive portion covered here is meant to draw in new ideas, strengthen university and lab pipelines, and generate “creative solutions” to persistent nuclear energy challenges, including those tied to advanced fuels, materials behavior in extreme environments, modeling and simulation, and experimental validation.

This FOA consolidates several DOE-NE pathways under one umbrella, specifically the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) Crosscutting Technology Development (CTD), and access opportunities through the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF). NEUP is described as using up to 20 percent of funds appropriated to DOE-NE’s broader R&D program to support university-based infrastructure and R&D in priority areas tied to DOE-NE programs, including Fuel Cycle Research and Development (FC R&D), Reactor Concepts Research, Development and Demonstration (RC RD&D), and Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS). NEET CTD, in contrast, is positioned to support crosscutting technology development led by national laboratories and universities, generally focusing on enabling technologies that benefit multiple reactor and fuel cycle pathways rather than a single design. NSUF, established in 2007, is highlighted as a mechanism for providing researchers from universities, industry, and national labs with no-cost access to high-end nuclear research infrastructure such as material test reactors, beamlines, and post-irradiation examination facilities, allowing teams to generate high-quality data that would otherwise be difficult or prohibitively expensive to obtain.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is issued by the Department of Energy, Idaho Field Office, and uses a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument, which typically implies more substantial federal involvement during project execution than a standard grant. It is categorized under the Energy funding activity category and is associated with CFDA number 81.121. The eligible applicant pool is broad and includes public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, for-profit organizations (including but not limited to small businesses), small businesses, and additional eligible entities as clarified in the FOA’s eligibility section. This wide eligibility is consistent with DOE-NE’s stated intent to promote cross-sector collaboration and ensure that both academic research and industry-relevant development needs are addressed.

Key timeline and scale details included in the source information are that the FOA was created on September 10, 2018, with an original closing date of February 12, 2019. The stated award ceiling is $1,000,000, and DOE anticipates making approximately 67 awards, indicating a portfolio approach that spreads investment across many projects rather than concentrating all funding into a small number of large awards. DOE-NE also explicitly reserves the right to adjust to shifting R&D priorities during FY 2019 due to events, policy changes, or Congressional and budget direction, and it reserves the right to fund all or only part of an application. In practice, that means applicants should expect that final selections and award sizes may reflect evolving programmatic needs and available appropriations, and that partial funding outcomes are possible even for meritorious proposals.

Overall, this funding opportunity is designed to strengthen the U.S. advanced nuclear innovation ecosystem by pairing competitive R&D awards with access to unique national capabilities, while keeping the work grounded in the data, materials, testing, and modeling needs that advanced reactor developers and fuel cycle innovators must solve to support licensing, demonstration, and eventual commercialization.

• The Department of Energy, Idaho Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year 2019 Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.121.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 10, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 12, 2019. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 67 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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