Proposal Guidelines
Description of Proposed Research
Attach a file (.pdf or .doc) describing the proposed research, limited to three pages of text (additional pages for images are allowed). Remember to write the description of the proposed work at a level appropriate for someone familiar with the general area of your research, but not necessarily an expert on the specific topic.
Additional Information
The following topics should be incorporated in the proposed work description.
- Scientific question(s) being addressed and relationship to EMSL's mission: The William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national scientific user facility located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, provides integrated experimental and computational resources for discovery and technological innovation in the environmental molecular sciences to support the needs of DOE and the nation.
- Relationship to EMSL’s Science Themes
- Approach to be used to address the question(s)
- Resources requested as well as the periodicity, e.g., six two-day slots of XPS time once every two months, or two one-week periods of XPS time for special experiments plus three rounds of MBE-grown samples approximately one every six months along with related XRD and XPS analysis time
- Anticipated importance or significance of results to be obtained
- Description of the work to be conducted at EMSL and indication of portions of the work conducted at other locations
- Your (or team) expertise and other (EMSL) expertise needed to complete the research
- Any preliminary, background measurements, or tests completed that validate the approach or led to the user proposal (include references where relevant)
- Any critical milestones or targets needed for the project to succeed.
Computation Requests
If compute cycles are part of your proposal, an additional half page is allowed because of specific Molecular Science Computing review needs. If the following items are not already covered in the description of your proposed research, please include:
- Description of method and/or approach and software that will be used
- Justification for the number of hours requested (estimate based on number, size, and duration of proposed calculations based on either Chinook or another computer)
- If software other than NWChem will be used, examples of scaling well should be included.
In regard to computation requests for Science Themes, note that computational hardware and software resources are available at EMSL to perform molecular-based modeling in all Science Themes. These capabilities include standard ab initio and empirical potential modeling techniques, such as molecular orbital and density functional theory calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, and ab initio molecular dynamics. Science Theme proposals that link computation and experiment are encouraged. The maximum computation request for Science Theme proposals is 150,000 cpu-hours computation. If project needs exceed this amount, a Computationally Intensive Research proposal should be considered.
Previous EMSL Research
If not covered in the description of proposed work, please provide information about previous EMSL activities and interactions (one additional page maximum).
- Describe any previous established relationships with EMSL scientific consultants that would be involved in the proposed research.
- Describe how your new research builds on previous EMSL activities.
- List any products (papers, presentations, or patents) resulting from your previous EMSL usage.
CVs and Additional Files
After attaching your proposed research file:
- The PI should attach a 2-3 page CV. Abbreviated CVs of other major authors are encouraged but not required.
- You may also attach other supplemental files, e.g., images, graphics, and PDFs.
Proposal Review Criteria
Read the EMSL Proposal Review Criteria to assist in targeting your research description.
