LBS Call for Proposals

Summary

LLE is now accepting proposals for experiments in the Laboratory Basic Science (LBS) Program at the Omega Laser Facility for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027.

LLE expects to allocate about 10% of the Omega Laser Facility time for LBS experiments in FY27. As is always the case, management of the LBS Program is contingent upon funding and authorization. If the enacted budgets contain a significant cut to LLE’s Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Program, the time allotted to the LBS Program under this call may be reduced. The ongoing sustainment activities at the Omega Laser Facility may also result in an increase in scheduled facility downtime. The facility operational planning team will optimize the schedule, but the total LBS shot time may be impacted.

Eligibility & Award Information

LBS proposals must be led by researchers from the NNSA ICF laboratories (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Naval Research Laboratory, and LLE), and the DOE Office of Science laboratories (Ames Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility). Researchers from other institutions can be collaborators on LBS projects.

LBS proposals should not duplicate efforts being conducted or proposed to be conducted through the NNSA-supported NLUF Program or the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences-funded LaserNetUS Program, nor proposals submitted through the NNSA HED program Omega Facility allocations.

Consistent with the UR/LLE and NNSA policies, additional information will be required for all non-US citizens who will be involved in the proposed project if the application is selected for an LBS beam-time award.

Proposal Selection

Applications that pass the initial compliance review will be subjected to both merit review by an independent LBS Proposal Review Panel (PRP) and the technical feasibility review including resource demands by LLE.

The LLE Director will make the final decision concerning the award of OMEGA/OMEGA EP shot opportunities for this program based on the PRP recommendations and the facility feasibility and executability assessments. A list of the approved experiments naming the PI and the title of the experiment will be made publicly available once scheduling is complete.

Type of Award

Only Omega Facility time (including OMEGA EP) in units of “shot day(s)” will be awarded.

Users’ institutions are generally responsible for travel and target expenses as well as any significant consumables required by the experiment.

Expected Number of Awards

The exact number of awards will depend on the number of meritorious applications and the availability of the shot time allotted for the LBS Program.

For shot time allocation purposes, a joint OMEGA and OMEGA EP target shot day is equivalent to one and a half days (one OMEGA shot day and 0.5 OMEGA EP shot day).

Anticipated Award Size

The minimum facility-time allotment is anticipated to be half a day for OMEGA and one day for OMEGA EP, respectively. The maximum allotment for each award will be limited to two days per year.

Limitations on the Applications by the Same Organization or Institution

There is no limit on the number of distinct proposals the same institution/organization or principal investigator (PI) can submit to this call. Multiple submissions from the same team for similar experiments will not be considered.