The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a proposal call for the Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives (DE-FOA-0003361). The FIRE collaboratives will produce a fusion innovation ecosystem that connects fusion research with practical applications and the growing fusion industry, with the aim of rapidly advancing progress toward fusion commercialization. This specific call, along with the FAQ and other assorted information, is available on the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences funding opportunities web page at https://science.osti.gov/fes/Funding-Opportunities.  

The DIII-D program, as a US national user facility, serves as a unique research facility for fusion energy research and technology development across all possible approaches. The program also provides support to users to advance these goals. The FIRE Collaboratives seek proposals for new lines of research that make use of the distinctive strengths of multi-institutional teams. This means that it is important for proposals involving DIII-D capabilities to establish the uniqueness of the proposed research. The DIII-D Record of Discussion process is used for all funding proposals to assist applicants in accurately determining and describing the capabilities of the facility and the value of performing selected research activities as part of the DIII-D team. 

Applicants that are proposing any part of their FIRE research be conducted at DIII-D are required to complete a Record of Discussion. The Record of Discussion (ROD) process helps applicants to better formulate the DIII-D components of their proposed research. RODs are also provided to the DOE DIII-D Program Manager in order to assist with resource planning for future years. The customized steps in the ROD process for FIRE Collaborative proposals are:   

1. Request to begin the ROD process through the Contact form (select Record of Discussion). In the form, please provide a summary of the subject matter of the part(s) of your proposal that would be performed at DIII-D or through the use of archival DIII-D data. This should begin before you submit the pre-application.
   
2. You will be provided with a DIII-D Research Contact and asked to provide a copy of your existing technical plans, or pre-proposal or working version of your proposal (narrative); these documents will provide a basis for the discussion. The Research Contact will help you to determine the optimal usage of DIII-D capabilities and resources for your proposed research. This will be documented on the ROD form, which can be downloaded here (Word format).
   
3. Fill in form fields 1 – 8 to the best of your knowledge and then interact with your DIII-D Research Contact to complete the sections relevant to your discussion. After engaging with the Research Contact, you will be able to complete fields 9 – 10.
   
4. Send the ROD to David Pace (pacedc@fusion.gat.com). Further reviews from program management will be obtained as necessary, and the final document submitted for your signature through DocuSign. The DocuSign email will come from “David Pace via DocuSign” under an address of dse_NA3@docusign.net or similar.
   
5. All RODs are submitted by DIII-D to the DOE DIII-D Program Manager. 

DIII-D Guidance Document 06: Program Resources Provided to Users
This document clarifies the support items that are provided to DIII-D users. This information is intended to inform user expectations such that users can make appropriate resource requests in Funding Opportunity Announcements and in other funding support they seek to obtain.  

DIII-D Capabilities and Tools for Plasma Science Research
Created for the Frontier Science program of MagNetUS, this document provides detailed information on the plasma parameters and actuators available at DIII-D. 

Research at DIII-D
Homepage of the DIII-D Research Team. The various subfields of the research program are described. Each of the three Research Groups can be reached by selecting the appropriate item in the “Support Topic” field of the Contact form.