Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) Update

Prior to the opening of the FY 2022 Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) call, the NSUF will be making two changes to the solicitation process. The first change will be to give special consideration to each Principal Investigator (PI) from a Minority Serving Institution (MSI). The second change will implement two new rules designed to make initial information from RTE projects available to the research community in a timely manner.

Call Dates

The first cycle of the RTE award process is expected to open on 1/17/2022 and close on 2/28/2022.

Minority Serving Intuitions

The NSUF will give special consideration to Principal Investigators from Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). For an institution listed in the directory, the NSUF will add five points to the proposal’s average technical score.

Information on Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) can be found at: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/edlite-minorityinst-list.html. This information predominately covers institutions that have been awarded grants through the Department of Education and does not currently include all institutions that may meet the definition of an MSI.

Also, a consolidated list of MSIs based on 2020 U.S. Department of Education data, as compiled by Rutgers University, is provided for your convenience at the following link: https://cmsi.gse.rutgers.edu/content/msi-directory. The Department of Energy does not validate the comprehensiveness of the list on this site.

During the recommendation process, the NSUF will review each RTE proposal to see if the Principal Investigator (PI) is from an institution listed in the United States Department of Education directory. For those on the MSI list, five points will be manually added to the average technical score on the recommendation spreadsheet and duly noted in the recommendation provided to the NSUF Federal Program Manager.

Two New RTE Rules

Two new RTE rules will be added to the Applicant subsection as follows:

1. A project is considered active until a completion report is submitted and approved (please refer to completion report criteria for additional information).

2. Data generated from the work must be made available to the research community in a timely manner. The PI is responsible for the collection, management, and sharing of the research data through a data management plan.

Completion Report Criteria

A new section titled “Completion Report Criteria” will be added. The new section will assist applicants in preparing a satisfactory completion report and will contain the following: (1) A summary of both the work completed and the data obtained and (2) a description of the potential impact to the state-of-knowledge. The completion report can be uploaded as a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF document.

After submittal, a completion report will be reviewed by the NSUF Program Office staff. If the report is determined to be satisfactory, the project status will be changed to complete. If the report is deemed unsatisfactory, the report will be returned to the PI with comments that will need to be addressed prior to resubmission.

After approval, the completion report will go through a classification and export control review for external release. Once the completion report is approved for external release, it will be posted on the NSUF website under the PI’s project, where it will be accessible to the public.

Applicants will be allowed to prepare, but not submit, a proposal that if awarded would create a third active RTE project for a PI. On initiation of the proposal, applicants will be informed that submission of the proposal will not be allowed until a completion report for one of the active projects is approved. Completion reports must be submitted at least two weeks prior to the close of the call to allow time for review. Applicants are encouraged to submit completion reports well in advance of the close of a RTE call as iteration may be required prior to approval.

A link to an example of a satisfactory completion report will be provided on the NSUF website.