FY 2024 Innovations in Nuclear
Energy R&D Student Competition

May 31, 2023

FY 2024 Innovations in NE R&D StudentCompetition (INSC) Dates
INSC EventDate

FY 2024 INSC RFA Released

October 2023

Applications Due

November 2023

INSC Awards Announced

March 2024

Innovations Student Competition
Program• The Innovations in Nuclear Energy R&D Student Competition (INSC) is the Officeof Nuclear Energy’s (NE’s) program to recognize and award published graduate
and undergraduate students for innovative nuclear energy research.
• It is designed to:• Award graduate and undergraduate students for innovative nuclear energy
research as demonstrated through journal publications and conference
presentations,• Demonstrate the commitment of the Office of Nuclear Energy to higher
education in nuclear disciplines relevant to the NE mission, and• Support communication among students and U.S. Department of Energy
representatives.

Competition
Renamed in2023• This competition has been renamed and is acontinuation of the “Innovations in Nuclear
Technology R&D Awards Program” supported
since 2010 by the Office of Nuclear Fuel Cycleand Supply Chain within the Department ofEnergy, Office of Nuclear Energy andadministered by the University Research
Alliance.
• For purposes of eligibility, the “Innovations in
Nuclear Technology R&D Awards Program” andthe “Nuclear Energy Research andDevelopment (R&D) Student Competition” arethe same.

FY 2024 INSC RFA is composed of fivedifferent competitions (Ranked by award package value) :1. Open Competition Award of Excellence (undergraduate and graduate students)
2. Competition for Graduate Students Attending Minority Serving Institutions orBelonging to an Underserved Community
3. Open Competition Awards
4. Competition for Undergraduate Students Attending Minority Serving
Institutions or Belonging to an Underserved Community
5. Undergraduate Competition
Applicants may be eligible for multiple categories and may compete in all of them;
however, applicants are only eligible to win one award per year.

FY 2024
INSC
Award
Description

 Five competitions are available. Each publication will be evaluated in eachcompetition for which it qualifies. Applicants could be eligible for multiple
categories and could compete in all of them but would only be eligible towin one competition per year.
 Students may submit more than one publication, but no student may
receive more than one award per year.
 Awards vary according to award level. Some awards may include travel orconference opportunities. Travel expenses may be covered for students topresent at a national conference, typically at the American Nuclear Society(ANS) Winter Meeting.
 Successful students will be provided an honorarium as part of the award
package.
 The U.S. Department of Energy, the federal government, or Battelle Energy
Alliance is not obligated to make any award as a result of thisannouncement.

Topic Areas Reactor Development and Plant Optimization (including advanced reactor
design and development; improving economics of construction and operations;
flexible operations; and implementation of artificial intelligence and machinelearning) Flexible Energy Systems (including non-electric and industrial heat applications;
thermal storage integration; remote deployment and dedicated power supplies,and siting) Fuel Cycle Technologies (including advanced fuels; aqueous separations;molten salt separations and solution chemistry; advanced waste form
development; and fuel cycle options and systems analysis)
 Spent Fuel Disposition (including storage, transportation, disposal of commercial
spent nuclear fuel, and behavior of actinides and radionuclides under genericrepository conditions; light water reactor core, structural, and cladding materials;
advanced reactor core, structural, and cladding materials; advanced
manufacturing technologies; and materials for fuel recycling applications)

Subject to Change
Pending RFA Release Nuclear Engineering (including reactor physics, thermal hydraulics and heattransfer, and nuclear chemistry) Energy Policy and Social Sciences (including environmental justice, consentbased siting, decision support simulators, which may include game theory,
economic modeling, and applied mathematics)

Relevant Disciplines
Relevant disciplines include the following(but are not limited to):• nuclear engineering•• mechanical engineering •• electrical engineering•• chemistry•• health physics•• nuclear materials science •• radiochemistry•• applied nuclear physics• nuclear energy policy

radiation protection technology
nuclear power technology
nuclear maintenance technology
nuclear engineering technology
nuclear operations
computer sciencecybersecurity

Disciplines that are nota priority for DOE-NE:••••

medical physics
nuclear fusion
nuclear forensics
environmental management

1OpenCompetition
Award ofExcellence
UndergraduateandGraduate Students

 Up to six award packages including a $3,500
honorarium.
 Travel and conference opportunities may accompany theaward.
 Award recipients will have an opportunity to present their
publication at the annual ANS Winter Meeting as well asother national meetings.

2
Graduate
StudentCompetition
attending an MSI
or belonging toan underservedcommunity

Graduates Only Up to five award packages including a $3,500
honorarium.
 Travel and conference opportunities may accompany theaward.
 Students must be attending an MSI or belong to anunderserved community.

3OpenCompetition
Awards Up to six at-large award packages including a $2,500honorarium.
 Travel and conference opportunities may accompany theaward.

4
Undergraduate
StudentCompetition
attending an MSIor belonging to anunderservedcommunity Up to five undergraduate award packages including a$1,500 honorarium.
 Travel and conference opportunities may accompany
this award.
 Students must be attending an MSI or belong to anunderserved community.

Undergraduates Only

5
Undergraduate
Competition Up to five undergraduate award packages including a$1,500 honorarium.
 Travel and conference opportunities may accompany
this award.

Undergraduates Only

Travel andConference
Opportunities• Details about potential travel andconference opportunities will be
provided to award recipients.
• Award of Excellence and MSI Graduate
winners may have an opportunity topresent their publication at the annual
ANS Winter Meeting, or similar typemeeting.

FY 2024 INSC Eligibility Restrictions:• Applicants must be the first author or the principal student author of the submitted
publication, unless the student is an undergraduate.
• Applicants must be undergraduate or graduate students. An undergraduate is defined as astudent who had not yet completed their bachelor’s degree when the publication wassubmitted for publication or presentation.
• Applicants must be studying in a nuclear energy relevant discipline.
• Applicants must submit an online application form and a journal publication or conference
presentation that supports nuclear energy research that was published between December
2022 and November 2023.
•Applicants must have been a student at the time the publication was submitted and must bea student at the time of application submission (November 2023).

•Applicants must be part of an ongoing research program or a research program that wascompleted in the previous 24 months.

FY 2024 INSC Eligibility Restrictions(continued)
 Applicants who have been awarded previous Innovations Student Competition awards are eligible for
additional awards under the following conditions:• Applicants can only be awarded one award each year.
• Undergraduate awardees are eligible to compete for a non-undergraduate category in future years.
 Applicants who were awarded a previous Innovations Student Competition award and meet the conditions
above must submit a different publication containing significantly new information and state the following in the"Further Explanation" section of the application: "I was awarded a ‹competition› award in ‹year› with mypublication ‹title› which was published/presented on ‹date› in ‹journal/conference›. This publication issignificantly different from the award-winning publication in the following ways: and then describe thedifferences." Applicants may re-submit a publication submitted in a previous year as long as the publication did not win an
Innovations Student Competition award and the student and publication still meet this year’s eligibilityrequirements.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.

Review and Selection Process
Publications will be reviewed by a panel of nuclear energy experts in the following
manner:• All eligible publications will be evaluated for the Open Competition Award ofExcellence.
• Publications that do not receive an Open Competition Award of Excellence will, if
qualified, be evaluated in the other competition categories where they areeligible.

Evaluation Criteria
Publications will first be evaluated to determine that they are relevant to the Office of
Nuclear Energy’s mission. If deemed relevant, the publication will then be evaluatedusing the following criteria:• Innovation (45%) – publication’s importance, novelty, impact, questions
answered• Communication Skills (15%) – student’s skill at disseminating research results;
writing clarity.
• Applicant’s Role in the Research (25%)• Quality of the Journal or Conference (15%)

Award Conditions• An Innovations Student Competition award consists of:• an official award letter,• official award certificate,• honorarium,• possible travel support to present awarded research, and• display of awardee’s picture and awarded publication on the neup.gov website.
• Awardees will be notified of timing to register and submit awarded publications at the ANS
Winter Meeting.
• If selected, the student must accept or decline the award within 14 days of notification.
Failure to comply with the deadline may result in revocation of the award offer.
• Awardees will need to supply their photo and necessary tax information for theirhonorarium to be released.

Questions?