Organization and Infrastructure of
CAM Administration at Los Alamos
Dave Whitten
Los Alamos National Laboratory
CST-1, MS J565
Los Alamos, NM 87545
(505) 665-6024
(505) 665-4631 FAX
Initial Activities and Funding Sources
Growth and Expansion of ICAM and Funding Thereof
Long Term Goals
It seems to me clear that in the long term we would like to see Los Alamos as the organizational center and major research site of a national (or even international) resource for the study of matter, as indicated in your "concept" statement for ICAM. What it also seems clear to me is that neither we nor agencies such as DOE or NSF or the U. of Cal. would like us in the role of a granting agency, either in competition with them or as intermediaries in passing on funds, presumably with additional administrative costs/and or taxes.
So how can we "road map" our way to the desired goals? It seems to me that we need to establish a very lean organizational center that initially organizes workshops or schools such as we have already done in connection with other efforts. Presumably we have the experience and capabilities to do that well. As far as research activities are concerned we could also quickly (and at relatively low costs) and simultaneously build research bridges (as we discussed) between already funded efforts and at the same time (presumably) seed a few projects which enable groups from different sites and cultures to initiate new ventures resulting from the workshops or related communication activities. The bridges might be in the form of travel monies, bridging postdocs, visiting students or postdocs, use of specialized facilities, etc. The new projects might also involve bridging students or postdocs that would initiate new collaborations with attendant costs involved in the research activity. The extent of these (especially the latter) would depend on our success in obtaining funding.
Problems/questions include the groundrules, the necessity for having Los Alamos personnel involved in each project etc. (again a major question is whether all ICAM activities would have to directly involve Los Alamos - probably overly restrictive, but otherwise what is our role in funding or sponsoring projects/activities that do not (see above))? It would seem that the above-listed agencies or some subset of them may be willing to invest in these efforts with the goal that in the future either these efforts could independently compete directly for funds or be grouped as some larger activity such as an NSF Science and Technology Center or a MRSEC or a DOE-supported Center. The timing is good (I think) for NSF in that recent round of S&T and MRSEC Center competitions has just passed and the next major calls may be 2-3 years. Thus the "seed moneys" we might obtain could be investments towards the eventual establishment of one or more of these Centers. Of course a major problem with the NSF Centers is that I don't think NSF would be eager to give major funding to Los Alamos, even though these programs might be logical for support. There may have to be some partnership involving several academic institutions or even a DOE-NSF partnership in the funding arrangement. I think that of the 11 original NSF S&T Centers there was some involvement of Argonne in one and perhaps other labs in others. We probably need to look further into what might be arranged.