DE-FOA-0002460: X-Strack: Programming Environments for Scientific Computing
Closed
This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: Genesis Mission Graduate Fellowship Pilot (DE-FOA-0003673). Status: Closes January 12, 2027 (66 days left). It is in our archive of Office of Science notices from 2021.
Office of Science offered grants of up to $300,000 (at least $100,000) to the applicants described in the notice. It expected to make $12.0 million in total. Applications closed on April 12, 2021.
From the official notice on Grants.gov, last changed January 27, 2021. Checked November 7, 2026.
- Award ceiling$300,000
- Award floor$100,000
- Total funding$12.0 million
- Cost sharingNot required
- Funding typeCooperative Agreement
Key dates
| Posted | January 28, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Deadline | April 12, 2021 |
| Archived by Grants.gov | May 12, 2021 |
Who can apply
This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.
- Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
All types of applicants are eligible to apply, except nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995.Applicants that are not domestic organizations should be advised that:• Individual applicants are unlikely to possess the skills, abilities, and resources to successfully accomplish the objectives of this FOA. Individual applicants are encouraged to address this concern in their applications and to demonstrate how they will accomplish the objectives of this FOA.• Non-domestic applicants are advised that successful applications from non-domestic applicants include a detailed demonstration of how the applicant possesses skills, resources, and abilities that do not exist among potential domestic applicants. This FOA does not support an applicant’s commercial activity. Applications from for-profit organizations that propose a scientific scope of work related to current business activity or uses are considered to be commercial activity and will be declined. Applications containing a scientific scope of work that is or has been supported by or proposed to a Federal Small Business Innovative Research or Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR / STTR) program are considered to be commercial activity and will be declined without merit review. All for-profit applicants must include a description, not to exceed 200 words, of how their proposed work will advance scientific understanding of a basic and fundamental nature as an appendix to the research narrative. Applications that are submitted by applicants that have not submitted a pre-application will be declined without further review. Federally-affiliated entities must adhere to the eligibility standards below:1. DOE/NNSA National LaboratoriesDOE/NNSA National Laboratories are eligible to submit applications (either as a lead organization or as a team member in a multi-institutional team) under this FOA but may not be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application. If recommended for funding as a lead applicant, funding will be provided through the DOE Field-Work Proposal System. Additional instructions for securing authorization from the cognizant Contracting Officer are found in Section VIII of this FOA.2. Non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCsNon-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs are not eligible to submit applications under this FOA but may be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application. If recommended for funding as a proposed subrecipient, the value of the proposed subaward may be removed from the prime applicant’s award and may be provided through an Inter-Agency Award to the FFRDC’s sponsoring Federal Agency. Additional instructions for securing authorization from the cognizant Contracting Officer are found in Section VIII of this FOA.3. Other Federal AgenciesOther Federal Agencies are neither eligible to submit applications under this FOA nor to be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application.
Is this a realistic fit?
- Past Office of Science Financial Assistance Program awards averaged $1.2 million; this notice allows up to $300,000 per award.
- Most of the program's money (69% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
- No cost sharing or match is required.
What the grant funds
The DOE SC program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) hereby announces its interest in basic research in computer science exploring innovative approaches to creating, verifying, validating, optimizing, maintaining, and executing scientific software targeting distributed, heterogeneous, high-performance computing platforms. Next-generation systems for scientific computing are anticipated to be both heterogeneous and distributed, potentially pushing current trends to an extreme degree [1,5]: Heterogeneous: It is now common for high-performance-computing (HPC) systems to feature one or more computational accelerators, and ASCR’s upcoming Exacale systems, Aurora and Frontier, will have node architectures containing multiple Central Processing Units (CPUs) and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) (for more information, see https://science.osti.gov/ascr/Facilities/User-Facilities/Upgrades). Next-generation systems may feature many different kinds of computational accelerators, including but not limited to, GPUs, Coarse-Gained Reconfigurable Architecture (CGRAs), Filed-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), machine-learning accelerators, and processing-in-memory capabilities. In addition, to the extent that scientific-application workflows span multiple computing systems, applications in an individual scientific workflow may run on hardware with different hardware architectures. Not only do programming models for these heterogeneous systems need to enable execution across a variety of different kinds of hardware, but data movement and layout are also critical programming considerations [1,3]. Distributed: HPC systems are commonly composed from hundreds or thousands of individual nodes connected to each other using a state-of-the-art local network. While some systems do support a global address space (i.e., are shared-memory systems), most do not (i.e., are distributed-memory systems), and data is copied between nodes as needed [e.g., using Message Passing Interface (MPI)]. The nodes on a single system often share the same hardware architecture, although scientific workflows can span different kinds of systems. Scientific applications often need a large amount of memory to hold the state of the systems being analyzed or simulated, and as a result, their ability to run efficiently on large HPC systems is essential to their utility.
Who has won Office of Science Financial Assistance Program grants before
From fiscal 2021 to 2025, Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (81.049) awarded $7.7 billion across 6,205 grant awards, an average of $1.2 million per award.
| Recipient | State | Awards | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State University Foundation | Michigan | 84 | $573 million |
| General Atomics | California | 30 | $495 million |
| University of Wisconsin System | Wisconsin | 101 | $275 million |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts | 118 | $238 million |
| University of Illinois | Illinois | 61 | $201 million |
Applying now
This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, DE-FOA-0003673, which is open now.
The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.
Questions people ask
Is DE-FOA-0002460 still open?
No. It closed on April 12, 2021. A newer notice is open: DE-FOA-0003673, closes January 12, 2027 (66 days left).
Who can apply for X-Strack: Programming Environments for Scientific Computing?
Office of Science accepted applications from the applicants described in the notice. The notice adds further conditions, so read its eligibility section.
What is the deadline for X-Strack: Programming Environments for Scientific Computing?
Closed April 12, 2021. Applications are no longer accepted; the program's newer notices are on this page when there are any.
How much funding is available?
Awards of up to $300,000 each. About $12.0 million in total.
Who has won Office of Science Financial Assistance Program grants before?
The largest recipients over five fiscal years were Michigan State University Foundation, General Atomics, University of Wisconsin System. The program made 6,205 awards worth $7.7 billion in that time.