Department of Energy Announces $9.96 Million for Basic Plasma Science Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $9.96 million in funding for universities, private industry, and a national laboratory to support research in basic plasma science and engineering as well as frontier plasma science experiments at several midscale DOE Collaborative Research Facilities (CRFs) across the nation.

The funding will go to 20 universities, four private companies, and one DOE national laboratory. This will cover 30 awards aimed at supporting basic plasma science research as well as increasing research productivity and participation of U.S. researchers in the CRFs. The awards include three-year single investigator or small group projects as well as short-term, one-time seed funding projects.

“Basic and low temperature plasma science is an important area with many scientific and technological impacts,” said Jean Paul Allain, DOE Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences. “The research funded under this FOA will enable the U.S research community to address many fundamental and technological science challenges helping to ensure continued American leadership in this critical field.”

The funding supports frontier-level research in basic plasma science and engineering as well as external collaborators’ research projects at several DOE CRFs located at the University of California Los Angeles, DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and General Atomics in San Diego. U.S. researchers selected for funding under this program have already secured experimental runtime from the facilities to carry out their experiments.

Awards were selected based on competitive peer review under the DOE Funding Opportunity Announcements titled, “Research in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering” and “Research on General Plasma Science Collaborative Research Facilities,” sponsored by the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences’ (FES) General Plasma Science Program within the Department’s Office of Science.

Funding totals $9.96 million in fiscal year 2023 dollars for projects lasting one to three years in duration. A list of projects can be found on the FES homepage under the heading, “Topical Funding Opportunity Awards.”

Selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.