Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research | DE FOA 0003038

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0003038

The Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research (CINR) funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0003038) is a competitive Department of Energy grant program run through the DOE Idaho Field Office on behalf of the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). Its core purpose is to fund research, development, and related university infrastructure efforts that directly advance DOE-NE priorities for civilian nuclear energy. NE frames the program around national needs: strengthening U.S. energy security, supporting economic competitiveness, and delivering cleaner energy options by moving nuclear technologies forward from early research toward practical deployment and long-term operation.

This FOA is anchored to four mission priorities that applicants must clearly address. Projects are expected to align with at least one of these: keeping the current U.S. reactor fleet operating safely and economically for extended lifetimes, enabling deployment of new reactors (including advanced designs), securing and sustaining the nuclear fuel cycle (from fuels and materials through supply chain resilience and back-end considerations), and expanding international nuclear energy cooperation. The FOA also emphasizes that funded work should support broader DOE priorities such as combating the climate crisis, creating clean energy jobs (including attention to fair labor practices), and promoting equity and environmental justice through the delivery of innovative clean energy technologies. A key screening point is relevance: proposals in areas outside NE mission interests, specifically called out as including fusion energy, medical physics, nuclear forensics, or environmental management, are not reviewed or considered.

CINR consolidates two major pathways for supporting nuclear innovation: the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) and the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF). Through NEUP, DOE supports university-led research and development as well as infrastructure projects that strengthen the university base for nuclear energy science and engineering. Through NSUF, the FOA enables researchers to access specialized national capabilities that are difficult or impossible to replicate on a campus or in a typical private laboratory, such as materials test reactors, beamline facilities, and post-irradiation examination infrastructure. In practical terms, this means the opportunity can support both the scientific work itself and, where appropriate, the specialized testing and characterization environments needed to generate credible nuclear-grade data.

The opportunity is open to a wide set of applicants that reflects the program’s intent to encourage collaboration across the nuclear innovation ecosystem. Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, for-profit organizations (including those other than small businesses), and small businesses. NE also signals a strong preference for integrated and collaborative research approaches, often involving combinations of universities, national laboratories, industry, and sometimes international partners, as long as the work remains clearly aligned with NE’s mission and program direction.

From a funding and administrative perspective, the FOA is a discretionary grant opportunity under the Energy funding activity category (CFDA 81.121). The anticipated maximum award amount is listed as up to $4,000,000 per award, and DOE projected roughly 59 awards under this announcement. The FOA was created on June 22, 2023, with full R&D/NSUF and IRP applications due by December 20, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. DOE also reserves the right to adjust to shifting R&D priorities during FY 2024 due to external events, policy changes, or Congressional and budget direction, and it explicitly notes it may choose to fund all or only part of an application. This is an important signal for applicants to build proposals that are modular and well-justified, with clear prioritization of tasks and deliverables in case DOE elects to scope an award to a subset of the proposed work.

Overall, CINR is designed as a practical pipeline for nuclear energy innovation: it funds mission-relevant R&D, strengthens university capacity, and provides access to national user facilities so researchers can generate high-quality experimental results in nuclear materials and systems. Successful applications, based on the FOA language, are those that make a direct and defensible connection to one or more NE mission priorities, show how the work contributes to DOE-wide climate and equity goals, and fit squarely within the civilian nuclear energy scope DOE-NE is targeting.

• The Department of Energy, Idaho Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.121.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 22, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 20, 2023 Full RampD/NSUF and IRP ApplicationsDue Date December 20, 2023, at 500 p.m. ET. (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.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 59 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for DE FOA 0003038

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