The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is now accepting research applications through its Early Career Research Program. For the 2014 call, the DOE Climate and Environmental Sciences Division is only accepting proposals in the area of land-atmosphere interactions. Applications are sought that will reduce the uncertainties in projections from Earth system models through development of improved scientific understanding and/or model representation of climate-relevant land-atmosphere interactions within coupled terrestrial-atmosphere systems. Applicants are encouraged to use ARM or other DOE-supported measurements and/or DOE-supported or community modeling systems to address this research topic. More details are available in the Funding Opportunity Announcement, page 8.

Principal Investigators (PI) who received doctorates no earlier than 2004 are eligible to apply. They must be full-time, permanent, non-postdoctoral national laboratory employees, or untenured assistant or associate professors on the tenure track as of the proposal deadline. Applicants must reference the solicitation numbers DE-FOA-0001170 or LAB 14-1170 and be registered in the DOE Portfolio Analysis and Management System (PAMS).

Key deadlines:

• Pre-proposals are due on or before September 11, 2014, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
• Successful pre-applicants will be requested by DOE to submit a full proposal, due on or before November 20, 2014, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Each PI may submit only one Office of Science Early Career Research Program proposal per annual competition and should request project support for five years. In addition, a PI may not participate in more than three Office of Science Early Career Research Program competitions.

An FAQ about the submission process is available. Awards are expected to begin in FY2015.