Opportunity: Research on Innovative Approaches to Fusion Energy

The Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its interest in receiving grant applications for research on innovative approaches to fusion energy on the spherical tokamak, advanced tokamak, and stellarator concepts. Such research on small to medium scale facilities can explore specific aspects of these concepts, thereby enhancing the understanding of magnetically confined plasmas. By broadening the scientific approach, this research can also help to grow and validate fusion science over a wider range of plasma conditions and enhance the opportunity for scientific discovery in toroidal confinement. Support of research that can help to deepen the scientific understanding and improve the tokamak or stellarator concept is an important focus area of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Key issues include, but are not limited to: 0 Investigating stellarator configurations with the goal of simplifying and making maintainable magnet systems and extending confinement parameters. 0 Improving the understanding of 3-D shaping in an integrated manner in plasmas with higher levels of performance. 0 Applying 3-D analysis and design approaches to ELM suppression on existing tokamaks and ITER. 0 Improving the understanding of anomalous electron transport in spherical tokamaks. 0 Resolving disruption avoidance and mitigation to permit reliable, continuous operation in spherical or advanced tokamaks. 0 Developing approaches that will address plasma materials interaction issues faced by tokamak and/or stellarator concepts. Collaborations that include a DOE National Laboratory should note that proposals from a DOE National Laboratory must be submitted in response to the companion laboratory announcement (LAB 15-1348) in PAMS.