FY2022 Artificial Intelligence Research for High Energy Physics | DE FOA 0002705

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002705

The FY2022 Artificial Intelligence Research for High Energy Physics funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0002705) is a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, High Energy Physics (HEP) solicitation focused on advancing artificial intelligence methods and infrastructure that directly benefit HEP research, while also using HEP challenges and datasets to drive broader AI progress. In this FOA, DOE uses a broad definition of AI as the research and development of computational systems that take actions to achieve goals, and it explicitly notes that machine learning techniques can be included where appropriate. The opportunity is positioned as a research and development effort within science and technology, and it supports projects that contribute to both near-term HEP needs and longer-term AI capability-building relevant to the HEP community.

The announcement invites applications across three complementary topic areas. First is "AI research for HEP," which covers AI and ML approaches that improve how high energy physics is conducted, such as better event reconstruction, faster or more accurate detector data processing, improved triggering strategies, enhanced simulation workflows, uncertainty quantification, anomaly detection, and other AI-enabled advances that can increase the scientific reach or efficiency of HEP experiments and analyses. Second is "HEP for AI research," which centers on using HEP problems, constraints, and large-scale data environments as a testbed that pushes AI forward, for example by motivating new algorithms for learning under physical constraints, handling complex structured data, developing methods that are robust and interpretable in scientific settings, or creating approaches that scale to the extreme data volumes and computing architectures common in HEP. Third is the "development of an HEP AI Ecosystem," which emphasizes the broader foundations needed for sustainable AI-enabled HEP research, such as software frameworks, reusable tools, shared datasets, benchmark problems, best practices for reproducibility, workflows that integrate with HEP computing environments, and community-oriented resources that make it easier for researchers to adopt and contribute to AI methods in a consistent, maintainable way.

From an applicant standpoint, eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning the competition is open to a wide range of entity types, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications contained in the full announcement. A notable priority in the text is that the HEP program explicitly encourages applications from non-traditional HEP institutions and researchers, with the goal of broadening participation in both HEP research and the AI sub-field within the HEP context. Practically, that language signals that DOE is interested not only in established HEP laboratories and university groups, but also in teams that may be newer to HEP yet bring strong AI expertise, novel perspectives, or different institutional footprints that can expand the community.

In terms of award structure, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary and allows multiple funding instruments, including grants as well as other mechanisms and procurement contracts, depending on how DOE chooses to support a given effort. The ceiling listed is $3,000,000 per award, and DOE anticipated making about 25 awards. The FOA was created on March 24, 2022, and the original application closing date was May 24, 2022. The program is associated with CFDA number 81.049, and the sponsoring office is the DOE Office of Science.

Overall, this FOA is aimed at building a stronger bridge between AI and high energy physics: it seeks projects that (1) apply AI to accelerate discovery and operations in HEP, (2) use HEP as a driver for advancing AI research itself, and (3) strengthen the shared ecosystem of tools, data, and practices that allow AI-enabled HEP research to scale and persist across experiments, institutions, and computing platforms.

• The Department of Energy - Office of Science, Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY2022 Artificial Intelligence Research for High Energy Physics" 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 Mar 24, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 24, 2022. (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 $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 25 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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