Brookhaven National LaboratoryLDRD Review

Jack Anderson

August 6, 2018

Outline

Intro

• Introduction

• BNL’s Management Process

• Peer Review Process

• Financial Overview

• LDRD’s Relatedness to BNL’s Strategic Plan

• Summary of Performance Indicators

• Assessment of Program’s Value to the Lab and DOE

Esther Takeuchi Alessandro Tricoli Kevin YagerFerdinand Willeke

2

Brookhaven National Laboratory at a Glance

Physical Assets

• 5322 acres

• 315 buildings

Human Capital

• 2527 FTEs

• 123 Joint Faculty

• Lab supported

− 116 postdoctoral researchers

− 235 undergraduate/178 graduate

students

• ~ 3000 facility users

• 2313 visiting scientists

3

Lab Operating Costs: $550.1M

DOE Costs: $505.3M

SPP (Non-DOE/Non-DHS) Costs: $43.4M

DHS Costs: $1.4M

SPP/DHS as % Total Lab Operating Costs: 8.1%

FY 2017 Costs by Funding Source

($M)

Aerial View of BNL

Intro

LDRD is Essential to the Scientific Health & Vitality of the LabLDRD Investments

• Encourage and support the development of ideas that could lead to new programs,

projects, and directions

• Focus on early exploration and exploitation of creative and innovative concepts

• Enhance the Lab’s ability to carry out its current and future mission objectives in line

with the goals of DOE

− Maintain the Lab’s scientific excellence

− Stimulate new science and technology ideas

• Critical for achieving and maintaining staff excellence

• A means to address National needs within the overall DOE mission

Intro

4

http://www.bnl.gov/ldrd/

eRHICNSLS-II

Our Science Initiatives are Transformative and Differentiate BNL

Six Scientific Initiatives Will Help

Realize the Vision for the Lab

Major Laboratory thrusts that:

• Align with the DOE Strategic Goals in

Science, Energy and National/Nuclear

Security

• Build on the Laboratory’s core strengths

and capabilities

Will continue to distinguish BNL by:

• Delivering transformative science,

technology, and engineering enabling

the Laboratory to make the world a

better place

BNL aspires to leadership roles in

Quantum Information Science

• In areas aligned with the Lab’s

recognized strengths in materials

science, computation, and high energy

physics

5

Lab Initiatives

LDRD Administration

BNL

• Overall responsibility – Laboratory Director, Doon Gibbs

• “Day to day” responsibilities – Director of Planning, Performance and Quality Management Office, Jack Anderson (Interim)*

• Fiscal administration – Office of the ALD for Business Services, Brian Boyle (retired on 7/31)

• Overall assistance for LDRD - Senior Staff Specialist, Liz Flynn

• Subject Matter Expert - Special Assistant to the Director, Kathi Barkigia

DOE/BHSO

• DOE/BHSO oversight - LDRD Project Manager, Jennifer Hartmann

6

Administration

*In close coordination with Bob Tribble, the DDST

Jack Anderson Kathi Barkigia Brian Boyle Liz Flynn Doon GibbsJennifer Hartmann

Program Structure

Open Call

• Projects solicited annually for review and approval concurrent with the beginning of the

fiscal year

− Open to all BNL staff in scientific and technological areas

− Submitted through ALD for peer review by a Selection Committee

• Additional projects can be authorized throughout the fiscal year

Strategic LDRD

• Lab Director entertains requests/articulates the need any time during the year.

• Driven by special opportunities, including

− Research project in support of a strategic hire

− Evolution of Program Development efforts into R&D activities

− ALD proposals to the Director to support unique research opportunities

− Research project(s) in support of strategic initiatives as called out in the Annual

Lab Plan

• Peer reviewed to address quality of the proposed science and the credentials of the PI

to carry out the research

7

Management

Typical Annual LDRD Schedule

Develop focus areas

Issue call

Proposals due

Review existing projects

Review new

proposals

Budget decisions

Decide on new

and ongoing projects

Director’s approval

Submit projects to BHSO for concur-rence

Jan-Feb Mar-Apr Jun Jun-Jul Jul Jul-Aug Aug AugAug

8

Management

Dept/DivChairsreview

Science ALDs review

DDST, ALDs, Chairs review*

When

DDST, BNL

Council,ALDspeer

review*

DDST, ALDs iterate

What

Who

*BHSO invited to observe

LDRD Peer Review Process

Selection Criteria

• Intellectual merit of proposal

• Return on investment

• Broader impact on Lab

Some details

• ALDs submit ≤10 proposals for Selection Committee review

• 2 reviewers assigned per proposal

− Others (who read) invited to evaluate

− BHSO invited to observe

• Each project reviewed annually

Peer Review Process

9

A portion of the review sheet showing the primary and second reviewers

A Few Words about Workforce Restructuring

BSA’s FY18 Planning included a Restructured Workforce

• Enhance cost effectiveness and increase investments that support and drive Science conducted at the Laboratory

• SSVSP completed in October (63); ISP completed in December (53); other indirect, budgeted positions closed (40)

• Makes ~$15M available for LDRD, Program Development, and critical infrastructure

• Carefully monitoring performance trends

− Safety

− Service & Productivity

− Fiscal/Staffing

− Organizational Health

• Communicating the success of our investments is more important than

ever before

Financial

10

Program Costs (FY 2008-2019)

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Annual C

ost ($

k)

Fiscal Year

Financial

11

Number of Projects Funded and Average Cost Per Project (FY 2008–FY 2017)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Avera

ge C

ost ($

k)

Fiscal Year

Number Funded Average Cost ($k)

Financial

12

BNL’s Planning Processes

• Laboratory Planning is a continuous process

− Starts with the vision that is outlined in the DOE Annual

Lab Plan

− In this year’s Plan, we indicated discretionary

resources including LDRD that are needed to support

our initiatives

• Lab Planning in Science is complemented by “support side”

planning

− Touches all Level I, II managers

• Planning provides a holistic context for discretionary

investments

− What is important to fund

− Better prioritization of the funding

− Coordination of complementary investments among

LDRD, Royalty, IGPP, etc.

13

Annual Lab Plan

Lab Agenda

Lab Planning

BNL’s Institutional Planning & Assurance CycleLab Planning

14

Connecting LDRD to StrategyR&D for eRHIC was the highest priority for FY18 LDRD investment, while

maintaining a balanced portfolio

Connecting LDRD to Strategy

FY18 LDRD Portfolio ($11.9M)

Quantum Information Science (seed)

AS&T: From Applications to Innovations

HEP: Beyond the Standard Model

Making Sense of Data at Exabyte Scale and Beyond

Materials and Chemical Sciences

Nuclear Physics: From RHIC to eRHIC

Other

Quantitative Plan Sciences Initiative

15

Recent LDRD Highlights

• Demonstrated feasibility of high luminosity operations for BNL’s ring-ring design for an electron-ion collider

• Enabled development of new experimental tools at NSLS-II and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials

• Advanced the development of tools and capabilities for computing and data management

• Provided proof-of-principle results for Early Career Award submissions, including two that were successful

• Enabled foundational studies for the prototype energy recovery linac that may be key to strong hadron cooling for the electron-ion collider

Connecting LDRD to Strategy

FY19 LDRD Portfolio ($15.2M)

R&D for eRHIC and QIS are the highest priorities for FY19 LDRD investment, while

maintaining a balanced portfolio

Connecting LDRD to Strategy

Quantum Information Science (seed)

AS&T: From Applications to Innovations

HEP: Beyond the Standard Model

Making Sense of Data at Exabyte Scale and Beyond

Materials and Chemical Sciences

Nuclear Physics: From RHIC to eRHIC

Other

Quantitative Plan Sciences Initiative

Available for Investment, incl. eRHIC and QIS

16

Examples of FY19 Continuing Projects

• Interplay of the many body dynamics of parton spins with gluon saturation at the EIC

• Electrolyte flow battery for grid applications

• Visualization toward white-box machine learning for image registration in multi-modal imaging and analysis

• Electron beam formation via ionization injection for next generation accelerator R&D at ATF

• Custom electronics for high energy and nuclear physics applications

• Development of a new approach to remotely measure limitations on plant growth

Lab Core Capabilities

• Advanced Computer Science, Visualization, & Data

• Biological Systems Science/Climate Change Sciences and Atmospheric Science

• Chemical & Molecular Science/Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science/Chemical Engineering/Applied Materials Science & Engineering

• Large Scale User Facilities/Advanced Instrumentation/Accelerator Science & Technology/Systems Engineering & Integration

• Nuclear Physics

• Particle Physics

• Computational Science (emerging)

17

Core Capabilities

Connecting LDRD to Core Capabilities

18

Connection to Core Capabilities

Advanced Computer Science, Vis. & Data

Biol. Sys. Sci./Climate Change Sci. and Atmos. Sci.

Chem. & Mol. Sci./Cond. Matter Phys. & Mat. Sci./Chem. Eng./Appl. Mat. Sci.

Large Scale User Fac./Adv. Instr./AS&T/Sys. Eng. & Integr.

Nuclear Physics

Particle Physics

Available for Investment

FY19 LDRD Portfolio by

Core Capability

Prototype radio telescope for possible experiment post

LSST/DESI

Custom electronics Team developing sub-5 nm optics for hard X-ray nano-imaging

Performance Indicators

Performance Indicator FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Total number of publications published or submitted 119 123 87

Total number of patents and licenses 1 1 5

Total number of copyrights issued/granted 4 0 4

Total number of invention disclosures 3 3 0

Total number of postdoctoral researchers and students

supported62 54 67

Total number of scientific and technical research staff

hired6 2 6

Total number of national awards or recognitions

received3 5 8

Total number of formal presentations presented or

accepted*184 155 220

Total number of reports originating in whole or in part* 19 20 25

Total number of requests for follow on funding

submitted/amount requested and/or funded/duration*49 31 55

Performance Indicators

*Not required

19

Lots of Feedback on Our Program - Expecting More

Recent MBA capstone project to evaluate BNL’s LDRD program

• Continue to implement recommendations

− Collection of additional metrics

− Enhanced communication around LDRD

− Mentoring and training of PIs

− Improved use of information technology systems for assessing ROI

Ongoing Internal Audit review of the Program (commissioned by me)

• Awaiting initial report

20

A few slides from MBA capstone project

Self-Assessment

Value of LDRD to the Lab and DOE

• LDRD is the essential investment for developing new scientific results and capabilities in support of the execution of BNL’s mission and strategy

− Start-up package for strategic hires – competition for hiring top talent

− Proof of concept studies for new facilities, research directions

− Development of new scientific methods and instruments

− Creation of new organizational focus in emerging areas of research

• LDRD is essential to exploration of new ideas

− Exploratory research is not funded through FWPs or SPP efforts

− Only way to explore new scientific ideas and research directions; many are simply not fundable without proof of concept studies and preliminary results

• LDRD supports hiring and development of young staff (e.g. post-docs and assistant scientists)

• LDRD supports the education and training for undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs

Summary

21Two of BNL’s 2017 top 10 science highlights were LDRD-funded