Notice of Intent to Issue a Funding Opportunity from U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Initiative

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation Initiative will issue a Spring 2021 solicitation in May 2021, covering the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) program. HPC4Mfg is funded with support from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office. HPC4EI programs are designed to spur the use of national lab supercomputing resources and expertise for high performance computing projects that improve manufacturing processes, address products lifecycle energy consumption, and increase the efficiency of energy conversion and storage technologies. HPC4EI conducts two regular solicitations annually, one in the fall and one in the spring. The spring solicitation will target qualified industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects with DOE National Laboratories that address key manufacturing challenges and the development of new materials by applying modeling, simulation, and data analysis to solutions impacting the energy agenda. The solicitation will encourage applicants to partner with universities and non-profit organizations located within federally designated Opportunity Zones and/or Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Eligibility for the program is limited to entities that manufacture products or operate systems in the U.S. for commercial applications and organizations that support them. Selected projects will be awarded up to $300,000 to support computing cycles and work performed by DOE National Laboratories, universities, and non-profit partners. All DOE National Laboratories are eligible to participate. The industry partner must provide a participant contribution of at least 20% of the total project funding. DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) https://www.energy.gov/eere/amo/advanced-manufacturing-office, within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy https://www.energy.gov/eere/office-energy-efficiency-renewable-energy, is the primary sponsor of the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing program. AMO partners with private and public stakeholders to advance innovation in U.S. manufacturing and promote American economic growth and energy security. Learn more about the HPC4EI initiative https://hpc4energyinnovation.llnl.gov/ Topics of interest specific to the offices supporting this solicitation are below. HPC4Manufacturing DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is the primary sponsor of the HPC4Mfg Program. The Office of Fossil Energy and EERE's other Technology Offices may also sponsor select projects in this portfolio. AMO partners with private and public stakeholders to support the research, development, and deployment of innovative technologies that can improve U.S. competitiveness, save energy, and ensure global leadership in advanced manufacturing. AMO supports cost-shared research, development, and demonstration activities in support of crosscutting next-generation technologies and processes that hold high potential to significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce energy-related emissions, industrial waste, and the life?cycle energy consumption of manufactured products. Improved energy efficiency across the manufacturing industry is one of the primary goals of the HPC4Mfg Program. The program solicits proposals that require HPC modeling and simulation to overcome impactful manufacturing process challenges resulting in reduced energy consumption and/or increased productivity. Proposals should provide a realistic assessment of the energy impact, the improvement in U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, and the increase in U.S. manufacturing jobs that a successful outcome of the project could have across the industrial sector. Of particular interest to AMO are: Improvements in manufacturing processes which result in significant national energy savings. Examples include Process improvements in high-energy consuming industries such as paper and pulp, primary metal manufacturing, water and wastewater, glass and chemical industries; Improvements in material performance in harsh service environments such as very high temperature or highly corrosive processes; Integration of advanced object recognition and other machine learning algorithms (e.g. sortation, defect detection) into high throughput industrial processes; Improvements in modeling prediction and closed-loop control for smart manufacturing systems (e.g. advanced sensors and process controls); Improvements in separation and processing for critical materials (e.g. rare earth elements); and Electrification of processes. Improvements in the lifecycle energy consumption of products of interest to AMO. Examples include Improved materials and shape optimization for light-weighting in transport technologies; Semiconductor electrical efficiency; and Increased recycling of waste associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing or enable reuse at end-of-life. Efficiency improvements in energy conversion and storage technologies. Examples include Improvements in combined heat and power units which save significant energy and/or increase operational and fuel flexibility; Novel energy storage and energy conversion techniques; and Improvements in waste heat recovery.