Early Career Research Program (ECRP)
ECRP PROGRAM INFORMATION
DOE Office of Science
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science founded the Early Career Research Program (ECRP) in 2010. The DOE Office of Science's Early Career Research Program invites early career scientists to think strategically about their long-term plans and how these plans fit into SLAC and DOE goals.
This prestigious award provides an annual funding opportunity for researchers in universities and DOE national laboratories, including SLAC. This funding opportunity is for researchers early in their careers pursuing research topics supporting the DOE Office of Science's mission.
Keep reading to learn about ECRP eligibility, qualifying research areas, funding levels, submission timeline, and past recipients.
Program Details & Eligibility
This funding opportunity is for researchers early in their careers and with research topics that support the mission of the Office of Science in the following areas:
- Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)
- Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- High Energy Physics (HEP)
- Nuclear Physics (NP)
- Isotope Research and Development (R&D) and Production (DOE IP)
- Accelerator R&D and Production (ARDAP)
ECRP Candidate Eligibility
To be qualified to apply for the ECRP, early career candidates must meet these requirements:
- Full-time SLAC Ph.D. staff
- Cannot be a fixed-term appointment
- Postdoctoral Scholars, Research Associates, and Project Scientists are not eligible.
- SLAC level 2 researchers are eligible - Candidates are limited to a total of 3 final full proposal package submissions.
Applying as a SLAC Researcher
At SLAC, the pre-application must receive endorsement from the management chain before being submitted to DOE. Please pay attention to internal review deadlines.
Ph.D. Requirements
Award Cycles After 2024
- For cycles after 2024, candidates must have received a Ph.D. within the last ten years from the year the award cycle is announced. For example, the announcement for award cycle 2025 will be in fall of 2024. Eligible candidates must have PhD years not earlier than Jan 1, 2014.
Funding Through the ECRP
The ECRP award is for about $2.75 million over five years and is limited to one award per awardee.
ECRP Application Deadlines
ECRP deadlines fluctuate every year. The application process typically takes up to four months from the date of the announcement. The funding opportunity announcement previously comes out in the fall or winter (ranging from November to March). Always look at past calls to help prepare for future calls!
Early Fall - ECRP Kickoff Workshop by the DDS&T Office
All eligible PhDs will receive an email invitation to the workshop (look for email from OCRO@slac.stanford.edu). The workshop provides an overview of the ECRP program and the critically important SLAC internal processes and deadlines. Past awardees are at the workshop to share their ECRP experiences with a focus on tips, strategies, challenges and lessons learned.
SLAC ECRP Resources
SLAC Log-In Required
- SLAC Internal Due Dates and Templates - Provided by SLAC Tech Transfer and Strategic Partnerships (TT&SP)
- Early Career Network Grant Writing Webinar Links
DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences Previous OCRO Early Career Award Kick-Off Meetings
2023 SLAC OCRO Early Career Award Kick-Off 2022
Stanford Log-In Required
- 2023 SLAC OCRO Early Career Award Kick-Off 2024
ECRP Information
Learn More
SLAC's Past ECRP Recipients
| Year ECRP Awarded | ECRP Recipient | SLAC Directorate | DOE Office of Science Program Office | Proposal Title | Link to Abstract |
| 2010 | Yuantao Ding | AD | BES | Generation and Characterization of Ultra‐short electron beams for xray free electron lasers | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY10_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2010 | Ariel Schwartzman | FPD | HEP | Enhancing the LHC Discovery Potential with Jets, Missing ET, and bit ‐tagging Physics Signature Reconstruction in ATLAS | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY10_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2011 | Markus Guehr | N/A | BES | Understanding Photochemistry using Extreme Ultraviolet and Soft X‐Ray Time Resolved Spectroscopy | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY11_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2011 | Faya Wang | AD | HEP | RF Breakdown Dependence on Electric and Magnetic Fields and Pulsed Heating | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY11_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2012 | Dao Xiang | N/A | BES | Advanced Seeding, Beam Manipulation and Beam Diagnostic Techniques for Next Generation X‐ray Free Electron Lasers | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY12_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2013 | Juhao Wu | N/A | BES | Generation of Tunable Fully Coherent Stable Terawatt‐Level Hard X‐ray Free Electron Laser Pulses with Femtosecond Duration | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY13_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2013 | Thomas Bligaard | N/A | BES | Adsorbate Interactions in Catalytic Trend Studies | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY13_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2013 | Stefan Hoeche | N/A | HEP | High Precision Event Simulation for the LHC | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY13_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2014 | Shambhu Ghimire | ESD | BES | Strongly‐Driven Attosecond Electron‐Dynamics in Periodic Media | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY14_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2015 | Anne Sakdinawat | SSRL | BES | Hybrid Nanoscale X‐ray Imaging: Direct and Computational Imaging with Advanced X‐ray Diffractive Optics | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY15_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2017 | Frederico Fiuza | FPD | FES | Particle Acceleration in High‐Energy‐Density Plasmas: from Astrophysics to the Laboratory | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY17_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2017 | Zeeshan Ahmed | FPD | HEP | Development of High‐Density Microwave‐Multiplexed Transition Edge Sensor Bolometers for Next‐ Generation CMB Cameras | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY17_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2017 | Emilio Nanni | TID | HEP | High‐Gradient Accelerators at THz Frequencies | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY17_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2018 | Taisia Gorkhover | N/A | BES | Time-Resolved Imaging of Non-Equilibrium Electron Dynamics with Novel X-ray Holographic Approaches | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY18_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2018 | Joshua Turner | LCLS | BES | Fluctuations in Quantum Materials | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY18_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2018 | Kazuhiro Terao | FPD | HEP | GPU/FPGA Accelerated Deep Learning Technique Development for Discovering Physics in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY18_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2018 | Michael Kagan | FPD | HEP | Exploring the Higgs Sector at the Energy Frontier with Bottom Quarks, Machine Learning, and the Upgraded ATLAS Pixel Detecto | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY18_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2019 | Arianna Gleason | FPD | FES | Ultrafast Visualization of Hydrodynamic Evolution: Understanding Void Collapse at Extreme High-Pressure Conditions | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/Combined-Early-Career-Abstracts-FY-2019_07-26-2019.pdf |
| 2019 | Diana Gamzina | N/A | HEP | Mechanics of Materials’ Interaction with Electromagnetic Waves in Accelerator Cavities | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/Combined-Early-Career-Abstracts-FY-2019_07-26-2019.pdf |
| 2020 | Amy Cordones-Hahn | ESD | BES | Atomic View of Molecular Photocatalysis using X-Ray Lasers | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY20_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2020 | Brendan O'Shea | AD | HEP | Improving Accelerators with Diagnostics Optimized for Artificial Intelligence | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY20_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2021 | Edward Hohenstein | N/A | BES | Controlling Photochemical Reactions with Optical Cavities | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY21_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2021 | Emma McBride | N/A | FES | First Principles Measurements of Temperature and Transport Properties in Warm Dense Matter | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY21_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2021 | Caterina Vernieri | FPD | HEP | Probing New Physics with Precision in the Higgs Sector at the Large Hadron Collider | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY21_DOE_SC_Early_Career_Research_Program_Abstracts.pdf |
| 2022 | Auralee Edelen | AD | BES | Integrated Physics Modeling and Online Machine Learning for Characterization and Tuning of Particle Accelerator Systems | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/2022-Early-Career-Research-Program-Awards---Abstracts.pdf |
| 2022 | Noah Kurinsky | FPD | HEP | Superconducting Qubit-Based Sensors for meV-Scale Particle Detection | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/2022-Early-Career-Research-Program-Awards---Abstracts.pdf |
| 2023 | Leora Dresselhaus-Marais | ESD/SU MSE | BES | Sustainable Ironmaking: Using Photons to Understand and Drive the Mechanism of H2-Based Direct Iron Reduction | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY-2023-DOE-SC-Early-Career-Research-Program-Abstracts.pdf |
| 2023 | Johanna Nelson Weker | SSRL | BES | Enabling Multiscale Laminography for Operando 3D Microscopy without Geometric Restrictions | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY-2023-DOE-SC-Early-Career-Research-Program-Abstracts.pdf |
| 2023 | Claudio Emma | AD | HEP | Generating and diagnosing extreme beams for next-generation high energy physics and fundamental science experiments | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY-2023-DOE-SC-Early-Career-Research-Program-Abstracts.pdf |
| 2023 | Bernhard Mistlberger | FPD | HEP | Pushing the Boundaries of Precision: N3LO Predictions for the LHC | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/FY-2023-DOE-SC-Early-Career-Research-Program-Abstracts.pdf |
| 2024 | David Cesar | AD | BES | Attosecond Metrology for Electron and X-ray Beams | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/All-ECRP-FY24-public-abstracts_Final.pdf |
| 2024 | Julia Gonski | FPD | HEP | Machine Learning for New Physics and Microelectronics at the Energy Frontier | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/All-ECRP-FY24-public-abstracts_Final.pdf |
| 2024 | Kimmy Wu | N/A | HEP | Machine-Learning Enabled Field-level Inference for Primordial Gravitational Wave Discovery | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/All-ECRP-FY24-public-abstracts_Final.pdf |
| 2025 | Xueli (Sherry) Zheng | ESD | BES | PREDICT (Probing and Regulating Electrochemical Dynamics at Interfaces for Correlation and Tunability) | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/1ECRP-PubAbstracts-FY2025.pdf |
| 2025 | Derek Mendez | SSRL | BES | PECS: Protein Ensemble Compound Screening for Biothreat Response and Drug Discovery | https://science.osti.gov/-/media/early-career/pdf/1ECRP-PubAbstracts-FY2025.pdf |
