The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is now accepting applications for Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) research grants for the development of innovative laboratory and observational data analyses. The resulting knowledge from such analyses will be used to improve cloud and aerosol formulations in global climate models.

If the application is successful, the research will be part of the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Program in the Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division (EESSD). The mission of ASR, in partnership with the ARM Climate Research Facility, is to quantify the interactions among aerosols, clouds, precipitation, radiation, dynamics, and thermodynamics to improve fundamental process-level understanding, with the ultimate goal of reducing the uncertainty in global climate simulations and projections.

Potential applicants are required to submit a brief pre-application, referencing DE-FOA-0000291. Pre-applications should consist of a PDF file containing a maximum of two pages of narrative describing the research objectives, the technical approach(s), and the proposed team members and their expertise. Applicants for collaborative projects should submit a single pre-application identifying all project participants. Pre-applications should be sent via e-mail to both the program managers, Drs. Kiran Alapaty and Ashley Williamson. Please include “Lead PI name — Preapplication – DE-FOA-0000291 [Full or Exploratory]” in the subject line of the e-mail.

Applications are due by 4:30 p.m. EST on April 12, 2010.

The complete announcement, including detailed submission instructions, can be found in the full notice.