Energy Frontier Research Centers | DE FOA 0002653

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002653

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, through its Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program, is re-competing its Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) program under Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0002653 (CFDA 81.049). This competition invites both brand-new center proposals and renewal applications from existing EFRCs. The core idea is to fund coordinated, multi-disciplinary research centers that can tackle big, foundational scientific problems tied to future energy technologies, with an emphasis on high-impact basic research that can ultimately translate into practical advances.

Proposed EFRCs are expected to blend two complementary modes of research: discovery science (fundamental, curiosity-driven work that reveals new principles and phenomena) and use-inspired basic research (still fundamental in nature, but deliberately aimed at unlocking scientific barriers that limit real-world energy and manufacturing progress). Research topics should align with priority directions identified in BES workshop and roundtable reports, meaning applicants are expected to show a clear connection between their scientific vision and the community-informed research needs DOE has documented. DOE also signals that coordination across programs is a high priority, so strong proposals will typically show how the center will integrate expertise, facilities, and activities in a way that avoids siloed work and creates a coherent, collaborative research engine.

From a technical scope standpoint, DOE is looking for fundamental research across chemical sciences, materials sciences, geosciences, and biosciences, specifically where that work can enable future clean energy technologies and advanced manufacturing. In practice, that can cover a wide range of foundational challenges: understanding and controlling catalytic reactions at the atomic level, designing and characterizing novel materials with tailored electronic or ionic behavior, clarifying subsurface and geochemical processes that affect energy systems, or using biological and bio-inspired mechanisms to produce, store, or convert energy-relevant chemicals. The unifying theme is that EFRCs should address frontier-level scientific questions whose answers would remove bottlenecks and open pathways for next-generation technologies, rather than focusing on near-term product development.

A notable programmatic emphasis in this FOA is support for fundamental science that underpins the Energy Earthshots Initiative. That signals DOE interest in research that strengthens the scientific foundations needed to achieve ambitious national clean energy goals, while still staying within the EFRC identity of deep, basic research. Applicants should therefore consider framing their scientific aims in a way that credibly supports Earthshots-related needs, for example by targeting fundamental limits, mechanisms, and materials behaviors that constrain scalable clean energy solutions.

On the administrative side, this is a discretionary grant opportunity in the category of science and technology and other R&D. The award ceiling listed is $4,000,000. The FOA indicates an expected awards field but does not provide a number in the source data included here. The original closing date was May 16, 2022, and the FOA record shows a creation date of December 21, 2021. Eligibility is broadly open to domestic applicants, with one explicit exclusion: nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995 are not eligible. This wide eligibility, combined with the center-based model, means applications often come from consortia led by universities or national laboratories and involving multiple institutional partners, though the FOA language itself emphasizes domestic eligibility rather than restricting to a narrow institution type.

Overall, the opportunity is designed to fund large, team-oriented research centers that can pursue ambitious basic science agendas tied to DOE-identified priorities, while building the collaborative structure needed to make sustained progress on complex energy-relevant scientific challenges.

• The Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Energy Frontier Research Centers" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.049.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-12-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-05-16. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $4,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for DE FOA 0002653

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: