# Presentation: 037148

## REPORT TO THE

**REPORT TO THE**
**BIOLOGICAL and ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE **
**BY THE**
**COMMITTEE OF VISITORS**
**FOR THE REVIEW OF THE**
**ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION SCIENCES DIVISION**

- Michael F. Hochella, Jr., University Distinguished Professor
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech

## The COV would like to thank the technical and administrative staff of ERSD for their complete cooperation and warm hospitality throughout this review process.  Each member of the ERSD staff was fully compliant in all phases of the preparation and execution of the review.  They made the work of the COV both efficient and pleasant.

## The Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP) seeks to provide the fundamental scientific knowledge needed to address challenging environmental problems that impede the remediation of contaminated environmental sites. 

- The Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP) seeks to provide the fundamental scientific knowledge needed to address challenging environmental problems that impede the remediation of contaminated environmental sites.

- The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) is a national scientific user facility located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington which provides integrated experimental and computational resources for discovery and technological innovation in the environmental molecular sciences to support the needs of DOE and the nation.

## Timeline for this COV:

- May 10, 2007:  ERSD COV charged to BERAC
- January 13-15, 2008:  COV met at DOE Germantown
- March 28, 2008:  COV report submitted to Dr. Broido
- April 1, 2008:  Report in final form accepted
- April, 2008:  Report shared with ERSD staff
- May 19, 2008:  Report at BERAC meeting

## Research Program (ERSP) Review

_**Research Program (ERSP) Review**_
- Dr. Susan L. Brantley
- Penn State
- Dr. Katharine J. Covert
- National Science Foundation
- Dr. Richard Devereux
- U.S. EPA NHEERL
- Dr. Brian B. Looney
- Savannah River National Laboratory
- Dr. Timothy D. Scheibe
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Dr. Donald L. Sparks
- University of Delaware

## EMSL Program Review

_**EMSL Program Review**_
- Dr. Randall T. Cygan
- Sandia National Laboratories
- Dr. Karl T. Mueller
- Penn State
- Dr. Gordon G. Southam
- The University of Western Ontario
- Dr. Mavrik Zavarin
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- __________________
- Dr. Linda Horton
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory

## Summary of findings

-   Dr. Michael Kuperberg was the Acting Division Director over the majority of the time reviewed by this COV (2005-2007), and we feel that he did an outstanding job.
-   ERSD now has a rotating leadership, with each of the full-time ERSD program managers taking the lead over four month spans.  This is working remarkably well, a true testament to the excellent technical staff of ERSD.
-   This COV recommends that a permanent Division Director be put in place as soon as possible.
-   This COV recommends that the technical staff of ERSD be increased by one in response to having to implement SFAs, and at the same time dealing with an ever-increasing university generated proposal load.

## Summary of findings (continued)

-   It is readily apparent that travel funds are not sufficient for ERSD program managers.  The COV feels that travel is particularly important to the applied science projects needed to fulfill the ERSD mission.
-   This COV found that all ERSP solicitations over the last three years are generally clear and appropriate.
-   The proposal review process, proposal selection process for funding, and grant tracking are, for the most part, acceptable, and in many aspects, exemplary.
-   Shortcomings are minor to occasionally moderate in importance, and include failure to obtain extra reviews when there are outliers in a set of scores for a particular proposal, and less than ideal documentation on accomplishments related to some contracts, particularly from national labs.

## Summary of findings (continued)

-   Despite management, oversight, and logistical problems with EMSL early on, this COV is pleased with both the present leadership and management of the lab.
-   COV recommendations for ERSD management of EMSL include reducing the amount of week-to-week oversight now that the lab is running well, and to put more time into helping to formulate EMSL’s longer term strategy, as well as plans for recapitalization of major portions of EMSL equipment.
-   This COV is for the most part confident that ERSD managers will transition to the SFA model well.  This COV strongly encourages ERSD management vigilance in pushing laboratories to achieve the highest quality in research, and to expand or contract lab contract size where appropriate.

## Leadership of ERSD

-   Dr. Michael Kuperberg, July 2004 through Nov. 2006
-   In 4 month rotations since:  Paul Bayer, Michael Kuperberg, Todd Anderson, David Lesmes, Paul Bayer.

- Staffing of ERSD

-   The 2004 COV recommended additional staff, which has been accomplished.  Support staff include Kim Laing and Terry Jones, both of whom seem excellent.
-   This COV recommends one more technical staff position due to 1) change in funding strategy to the NL’s, 2) proposal load, 3) continued oversight of EMSL, and 4) intra- and interagency working group involvement.

## Comments on Proposal Handling, Review, Selection, and Administration

-   Hundreds of pre-apps, but handled fairly and thoroughly.
-   Proposals mostly reviewed by a panel, and they get 3-4 high quality reviews.
-   Highly recommend that the ERSP staff ask for additional reviews when there are outliner scores.
-   Increase in quality and quantity of internal documentation for proposals from 2005 to 2006 and beyond.
-   Some lower scored proposals were selected over higher scored proposals for programmatic reasons.

- Concentrating on the 2006 ERSP calls 06-04 (SciDAC) and 06-12 (ERSP)

## Comments on Proposal Handling, etc. (continued)

-   The COV is very supportive of ERSD’s efforts to include exploratory research in their portfolio and encourages the Division to continue its efforts in this regard.  This is designed to bring in new faces.
-   If an annual meeting is to be a major element in oversight and management, then ERSD should consider developing a process to document this in each award file.  This could be as simple as a checksheet that identifies the project and PI, provides a checkbox related to progress, and has an area for a short summary sentence or two.

## ERSD’s oversight of EMSL

-   EMSL reviews in 2004, 2005 (2), and 2006 have resulted in a dramatic improvement in operation and management of EMSL.
-   This COV is impressed with the success of Dr. Allison Campbell as the EMSL director.
-   This COV is impressed with the implementation of changes driven by ERSD managers.
-   ERSD have weekly conference calls with the EMSL Director, and ERSD managers visit EMSL twice per year for “deep dives”.

## ERSD’s oversight of EMSL

-   ERSD managers should consider reducing operational oversight which will allow them to focus more on moving EMSL along its path towards fulfilling its scientific mission, as well as strategizing long-term oversight and concentrating on EMSL program development.
-   We recommend a more clearly defined management chain, and believe that this is particularly important for a program in which many organizations are involved.

- Recommendations

##   The COV encourages ERSD to better document their interaction with other BER divisions and BES in discussions relevant to management, funding, recapitalization, user access, and other user facility operations. 

-   It was evident to the COV that few, if any, *integrated* computational/experimental user projects were being supported at EMSL.  Development of a user community with interests in both of these world class facilities at EMSL needs to be cultivated if EMSL’s full mission is to be realized.
-   The COV strongly encourages ERSD managers to develop a clear and documented process, updated on an annual basis, for EMSL capital equipment purchases, with justifications based on the scientific themes and mission of EMSL.
-   The COV encourages ERSD to better document their interaction with other BER divisions and BES in discussions relevant to management, funding, recapitalization, user access, and other user facility operations.

- ERSD’s oversight of EMSL

- Recommendations

## Comments on the SFA conceptç

- The new paradigm for ERSD:  Future research calls will be to university and industry only and several identified DOE labs will be funded (based on historical precedents) within broad scientific focus areas.

*The COV believes that the current ERSD technical staff is cognizant of the issues related to transitioning to a SFA approach, the staff members recognize the challenges, and they have every intent to keep the program fresh and refreshed, and to maintain the highest science quality possible.*

## Comments on the SFA concept (continued)

-   A primary goal of the new SFA paradigm should be to allow the national laboratories to fully express the capabilities that national laboratories have that universities and industry do not.  Similarly, this new paradigm for ERSD should encourage work that is best and most efficiently performed at universities/industry to be done by universities/industry.
-   This COV supports expanding the SFA program through initiatives and to allow new labs into the program if they are (or become) competitive.

## Comments on the SFA concept (continued)

-   To achieve SFA goals, ERSD needs to carefully develop and implement program management and review, with documentation and metrics that consider the following (this type of documentation will be important to future COV panels):
- o	*Policies and procedures* for monitoring and reviewing performance and funding.
- o	*Clear management approaches* that can be used to modify funding profiles based on performance and to contract (or expand) programs as needed.
- o	*Levels of external collaboration*, including specific metrics for industry, universities, and other organizations (e.g., national laboratories that are not SFA laboratories).
- o	*Programmatic diversity and openness.*  These are expected to assure that diverse scientific approaches are included.

## Comments on the SFA concept (continued)

- o	*Cross fertilization and avoiding insularity*.  Metrics need to be developed to assure the application of scientific work from other SFA laboratories and universities.
- o	*Programmatic integration of the SFA efforts with the integrated field challenge sites (and other controlled field sites).*