The Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program in the Office of Science (SC), U.

S.

Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its interest in receiving cooperative agreement proposals for research and operation of, and/or construction of, intermediate-scale facilities for frontier plasma science

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research.

User facilities are sought that can address frontier plasma science questions in multiple research areas identified in the 2015 Frontiers of Plasma Science Workshops report.

Specific research areas of interest include:
•plasma dynamo (generation and amplification of magnetic fields); •magnetic reconnection (topological changes of the magnetic field lines); •particle acceleration by shocks, turbulence, and/or magnetic reconnection; •turbulent cascade and dissipation of energy in magnetized plasmas; and •formation of coherent structures in magnetized plasmas.

Consistent with the recommendation made in the 2007 National Research Council report (Plasma Science:
Advancing Knowledge in the National Interest by the Plasma 2010 Committee) and intermediate-scale research needs identified in the 2015 Frontiers of Plasma Science Workshops report, the goal of this FOA is to steward research that cannot be adequately addressed through small-scale, single-investigator projects (e.g., table-top experiments) and requires intermediate-scale facilities (e.g., experimental facilities larger than can be easily fielded by a single investigator but smaller than those at the larger national research installations).

Excluded from this call are mainstream magnetic fusion energy research facilities (such as advanced tokamak, spherical torus, and stellarator) as well as inertial confinement fusion facilities (such as convergent laser-driven systems and z-pinches).