The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy created Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP) in 2009 to consolidate its university support under one programme.

The RCUK Energy Programme (RCEP), led by EPSRC, would like to encourage the participation of UK researchers in this programme. In particular the RCEP will support the UK component of proposals including US/UK collaboration to the NEUP's Integrated Research Projects (IRP) solicitation.

Full details for the US solicitation area are available on the NEUP website (PDF 669KB). More detail on this year’s IRP solicitation can be found on page 74 of the document.

The area of collaboration in this NEUP call focuses on the: Simulation of Neutron Damage for High Dose Exposure of Advanced Reactor Materials.

UK applicants should discuss the call remit with their US partners.

Proposals should be submitted by the US partner according to NEUP processes. The RCEP will input into the peer review process and will ultimately fund based on the NEUPs funding recommendation. UK applicants should:

• Engage closely with their US partners when preparing the proposal (this is a US process and US partners understand how best to prepare the bid);
• Contact the RCEP lead to highlight the intent to submit a proposal (this will ensure RCEP is aware of the likely demand through this call and also allow RCEP to advise on the UK side of the application process). Any proposal submitted to the NEUP will require a letter of support from the RCEP confirming our intent to support the UK component if successful through peer review.
  UK partners are encouraged to include other UK stakeholders in their proposal as appropriate.
  In supporting UK participation in this call, the RCEP is seeking to ensure the development of truly collaborative proposals. This will be the second time we have run such a collaboration with the DoE and as such a continued dialogue with the RCEP lead contact will ensure the process runs as smooth as possible.