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DOE Genesis Mission

Northwestern DOE Genesis Proposal Guidelines 

Last updated 4/20/26 @ 08:20PM | The information in this website is subject to change; please check back frequently

Solicitation Link (Amended by DOE 4/20) 

FAQ Link (Amended by DOE 4/20)

Latest updates by DOE can also be viewed on the DOE Office of Science Funding Opportunities webpage.

The DOE GENESIS Mission Challenge Team has directly communicated to Northwestern that collaborative applications will be accepted and not penalized in any matter. 
DOE has amended the deadline for Phase I proposals and Phase II LOIs to be May 1, 2026.

Current Guidance

  • Northwestern will continue to use the collaborative proposal mechanism whenever possible for both NU-led and NU-partnering Genesis proposals. 
  • Northwestern will use the sub-award mechanism only for national labs that request it (either with NU as a sub to the NL or the NL as sub to NU). Other partners (universities, industry, etc.) will continue to use the collaborative award mechanism. 

Guidance for Proposals with National Labs

If a national lab is either a lead or a collaborator on a proposal and is requiring the subaward mechanism, Northwestern will comply with that requirement. Note that for a National Lab on a DOE call, the subaward framework is merely a submission mechanism. When issued, the funds will not flow through Northwestern, but are administered directly to the Lab from DOE. Therefore, we do not charge overhead on any part of these funds, and we exclude this amount from the NU total award. 

If NU is the Lead:

Following documents from the national lab will be required latest by April 24, however faculty should follow their RA’s instructed deadlines which may be earlier.

  • Institutionally endorsed Letter of Intent (LOI),  in addition to the letter of commitment.
    • Preference is the use of our template, however if another form is used it must include verification the subrecipient abides by all research security requirements and maintains a compliant conflict of interest policy. 
  • Brief Statement of Work 
  • R&R Subaward Budget Form, including attached budget justification 
  • Key Personnel information, as well as Biosketches and C&P 
  • Performance Site information (address(es) of office or lab where the work will be performed) 
  • COI/Collaborator/Merit Reviewer Exclusion List: Copy and paste the Lab information from each tab into our lead institution table.
If National Lab or Other Partner is lead:

If the Lab is requiring NU to revise our proposal to be a subrecipient, we will need to provide a Statement of Work and repackage the existing documents into a subaward proposal. 

Notes on Submissions to Grants.gov

Current Status: Active (as of April 20, 8:00PM)

We anticipate there may be issues or delays with the Grants.gov system given the very high volume of proposals. In that event, Sponsored Research will alert the community and initiate a support ticket with the Grants.gov Help Desk to help document any issues that prevent an on-time submission.