CHOOSE ONE: Grant and Cooperative Agreement …

.~.

Grant and Cooperative Agreement

Page I of25

' CHOOSE ONE:

D COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

IKI GRANT

CHOOSE ONE:

!!I EDUCATION

D FACILITIES

D RESEARCH

D SDCR

D TRAINING

\

1. GRANT/COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NUMBER

NRC-HQ-94-16-G-0036

, 2. SUPPLEMENT NUMBER

, 3. EFFECTIVE DATE

07/01/2016

4. COMPLETION DATE

5. ISSUEDTO NAME/ADDRESS OF RECIPIENT (No., Street, City/County, State, Zip)

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA DIVISION OF SPONSORED RESEARCH

6,JSSUEDBY U.S. NRC - HQ Malling Address: Acquisition Management Division

Mail Stop: TWFN-SE03

219 GRINTER HALL GAINESVILLE FL 326115500

Washington DC 20555-0001

7. TAXPAYER IDENTIFICATION NO. (TIN)

I

8, COMMERCIAL & GOVERNMENT ENTITY (CAGE) NO.

9. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/ORGANIZATION'S PROJECT OR PROGRAM MGR. (Name & Phone)

Dr. James Baciak

jebaciak@rnse.ufl.edu, 352-273-2131

10. RESEARCH, PROJECT OR PROGRAM TITLE

2016 NRC GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

11.PURPOSE

See Schedule

12. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE (Approximately)

07/01/2016 through 06/30/2020

13A.

AWARD HISTORY

PREVIOUS THIS ACTION CASH SHARE NON?CASH SHARE RECIPIENT SHARE

$0.00

$339.149.00

so.no so.on

S0.00

lDTAL 14. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA

$339.149.00

~016-X0200-IUPMRU-B4-B4D002-52-S-l64-TB458-4110

135, PREVIOUS THIS ACTION

lOTAL

~URCHASE REQUEST NO.

PCHC0-16-0185

JOB ORDER NO.

AMOUNT

FUNDING HISTORY $0.00

$339.149.00 $339.149.00

STATUS

15. POINTS OF CONTACT

TECHNICAL. OFFICER NEGOTIATOR ADMINISTRATOR

NAME

NANCY V. HEBRON-ISREAL

M LITA R. CARR

MAIL STOP

TELEPHONE

3WE11/3AF12 301-287-0718

E"MAIL ADDRESS

Nancy.Hebron-Isreal@

(.:IVJ.) 4J.!:l-otib~ MLITA.CARR~

PAYMENTS

16. THIS AWARD IS MADE UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF:

Pursuant to Section31b and 14lb of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended.

17 APPLICABLE STATEMENT(S). IF CHECKED:

D NO CHANGE IS MADE TO EXISTING PROVISIONS

D FOP TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND THE AGENCY-SPECIFIC

REQUIREMENTS APPLY TO THIS GRANT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

18. APPLICABLE ENCLOSURE(S), IF CHECKED:

0 PROVISIONS

D SPECIAL CONDITIONS

0 .. REQUIRED PUBLICATIONS ANO REPORTS

COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT RECIPIENT

CONTRACTING/GRANT OFFICER

.

?1DATE

M'LITA R. CARR

~/~-&.-,a_.J.-'--:;> 05/3012016.

AUTH~O~r~TIVE

...

t.11.1 \\-

-TIMPlATE ~ ADM001

?DMDu"2 Brian Prindle

'it~"'

~ . .

~~-~Baa

lf".!S'\J'!liDYW VUW9rl:

.~Ciaytt.eDlrector-ofJRUesfea2rc5h

201.6

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I

Grant and Cooperative Agreement

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ITEM NO (A)

ITEM OR SERVICE {Include Spaciflcnlions and Special Instructions) (B)

CFDA Number: 77.008 DUNS Number: 969663814 Payment will be made through the Automated Standard Application for Payment ()unless the recipient has failed to comply with the ~rograrn objectives, award conditions, Federal reporting requirements or other conditions specified in 2 CFR 200. Payment:

ASAP GRANT FUNDS REIMBURSEMENT SYS US TREASURY Period of Performance: 07/01/2016 to 06/30/2020

QUANTITY UNIT

(C)

(D)

ESTIMATED COST

. ?. . ;:.

NRC-HQ-84-16-G-0036

Attachment A - Schedule

A.1 PURPOSE OF GRANT

:The. purpose of this Grant ls to provide support to the "2016 NRG Graduate Fellowship Program at the University of Florida" as described in Attachment B entitled "Program Description."

A.2 PERIOD OF GRANT

1. The effective date of this Grant is 07/01/2016. The estimated completion date of this Grant is 06/30/2020.

2.. Funds obligated hereunder are available for program expenditures for the estimated ? period: 07/01/2016-06/30/2020.

A. GENERAL 1. Total Estimated NRC Amount: 2. Total Obligated Amount: 3. Cost-Sharing Amount: 4. Activity Title:

5. NRC Project Officer: 6. DUNS No.:

$339, 149.00

$339, 149.00

$0.00 2016 NRC Graduate Fellowship

Program at the University of Florida

Engineering ?Nancy Hebron-Isreal 969663814

A.3 BUDGET

I

.

Revisions to the budget shall be made in accordance with Revision of Grant Budget in

accordance with 2 CFR 200.

?

Year1

Other (stipend/tuition) $80,154.00

Total Direct Cost

$80,154.00

Indirect Cost (50%) E.QQ

Total Cost

$80,154.00

Year2 $83;162.00

$~3,162.00

$0.00 $63,162.00

Year3 $86,289.00 $86,289.00 ' $0.00 $86,289.00

Year4 $89,544.00 $89,544.00 $0.00 $89,544.00

A.4 AMOUNT OF AWARD AND PAYMENT.PROCEDURES

1. The .total estimated amount ofthis Award is $339,149.00 for the four year period.

2. NRC hereby obligates the amount of $339,149.00 for program expenditures during

the period set forth above and in support ofthe Budget above. The Grantee will be given

written notice by the Grants Officer when additional funds will be added. NRC is not

obligated to reimburse the Grantee for the expenditure of amounts in excess of the total

obligated amount.

?

3. Payment shall be made to the Grantee in accordance with procedures set forth in the Automated Standard Application For Payments (ASAP) Procedures set forth below.

Attachment B - Program Description

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NRC-HQ-84-16-G-0036

2016 NRC Graduate Fellowship Program at the University of.Florida

1. Introduction

The inception of nuclear engineering at the University of Florida (UF) dates back to

March 1951, when UF held an Engineering and Radiological Health and Civil Defense Conference. The University of Florida Training Reactor (UFTR) went critical in May . 1959. Nuclear Engineering at UF has continually evolved to educate nuclear engineers and perform cutting-edge nuclear research for almost 60 years. Over the past decade,

the program (formerly known as the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Department}

has continued to Improve In terms of quality and number of students, research funding,

facilities, and laboratories. The growth has created new challenges in meeting infrastructure, facilitiesflaboratories, and personnel requirements. The program was reconfigured in May 2011 to take advantage of current trends in the discipline and to leverage strengths in the College of Engineering. The Medical Physics Graduate Program joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering, with the Health Physics Graduate Program. The Nuclear Engineering Program (NEP) Is now Integrated into the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), which has strengths in nuclear materials. In 2014, Dr. James E. Baciak was name Director ofNEP.

Despite the changes in organization of the program, enrollment has remained relatively

strong. The number of undergraduates is currently between 100-110 students (roughly

25 students per year}. The graduate enrollment is growing. In Fall 2011, we had 12

students enrolled in our graduate program (MS and PhD students). In Fall 2013, we had

27 students enrolled. In Fall 2015, we had 41 graduate students In NEP, with 24

graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. It is expected that the number of graduate students

overthe next 2-5 years will continue to grow as we also increase the number of faculty in

NEP. We anticipate our graduate student enrollment at the beginning of the Fall 2017

semester to be over 50, with at least 30 Ph.D. students. The graduate program was

ranked last year at #18 by U.S. News and World Report (after several years of being

unranked), and we expect this ranking to improve significanUy in upcoming years as the

program continues to grow.

'

The Nuclear Engineering Program's laboratory facilities have grown by 50% over the past two years as new capabilities have come on-line with the growth in faculty within the program. The established laboratories function to provide education and research opportunities for students, and include 1) The Advanced Radiation Detection Laboratory with the mission to develop new neutron and gamma-ray detection instrumentation; 2)

the Fast Neutron Irradiation Facility, a new D-D neutron generatorfacilityfor materials

investigation, 3) the Nuclear Materials Laboratory which investigates the effects. of nuclear reactor environmentS on new materials; 4) the Advanced 'Nuclear Fuels Laboratory which develops new nuclear reactor fuels with improved performance characteristics; 5) The Advanced Radiation Detection and Imaging Systems (TARDIS) Laboratory; and 6) The University of Florida Training Reactor (UFTR) which is a 100 kW Argonaut-type research reactor. In 2006 with assistance from the DOE Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors Program, we successfully ?completed the conversion of the UFTRnuclearfuel from HEU to LEU. Currently, with major funding and . investment from multiple industrial partners, we successfully restarted in the UFTR in March 2015, as we also work towards licensing a digital control system. Efforts are underway to build new experimental workstations at the different ports of the UFTR. We recently installed a new thermal neutron imaging station on one of the beam ports, and the beam port is actually being utilized to benefit externally-funded research.

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NRC-HQ-84-16-G-0036

In addition to NEP, the UF College of Engineering is home to 10 other ABET accredited departments/programs. The number of students in the College is approaching 8500, which i~ comprised of ...5,000 undergraduate and -2,500 graduate students.

Florida, with its high rate of population growth; will require significant expansion (over

35%) in its base-load generation capacity by 2030. As a result, Florida Power and Light

is planning to extend the life of their existing reactors, and to build two new reactors. Given that we are the only accredited nuclear engineering program in the State of

Florida (with degrees at .the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. levels), it is certainly a responsibility that NEP provides the higher education in the state to recruit and train the best and

brightest students.

The Nuclear Engineering Program has been able to recruit excellent students by

providing fellowships, such as the Graduate Student Fellowship Award (formerly known

as the COE Alumni Fellowship), which is funded by the COE. A specific number of these

fellowships are allotted to each year to every engineering program at UF. NEP's efforts

in attracting excellent graduate students are reflected in the increased enrollments, the

number of students actively participating in the student chapter of the American Nuclear

Society. In addition, with our recent growth, we have established a student chapter of

Women In Nuclear (WIN), and are in process of establishing a chapter for the Institute

for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM).

?

2. Description of the Proposed Fellowship Program

The fellowship program is designed with a final goal of producing high quality engineers and scientists who benefit various sectors of the nuclear industry. The following subsections elaborate on different aspects of the program including eligibility, amount of the award, duration, selection committee, monitoring and progress reporting, marketing, and program management.

2.1 Eligibility

A fellowship candidate must have a conferred baccalaureate degree from an accredited

college or university with a minimum 3.3 GPA for all undergraduate work. The selected fellows must maintain a full course-credit load as specified by NRC criteria. A UF Fellowship requires .12 credits during the Fall and Spring Semesters, and.8 credits in the Summer Semester. Underrepresented minority students, as well as female students, will be highly encouraged to apply.

2.2 Amount of Award, Duration, and Distribution

Since fellows can be selected for both M.S. and Ph.D. studies, we will consider 2- and 4-

year fellowships, although we will give priority to Ph.D. students. The annual stipend for each fellow begins at $25,000. Tuition will be paid for each fellow. The total cost of the project over 4 years .(2 fellowships during each year) is $339, 149.

2.3 Selection Committee and Criteria for Selection

The NEP Fellowship Committee will consist of three faculty (Dr. James Baciak (MSE Interim Chair and NEP Director), Dr. Kelly Jordan (as Associate Chair for Nuclear Engineering), Dr. Leigh Winfrey (as the NE Graduate Coordinator) and one staff member

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NRC-HQ-84-16-G-0036

(the NE Academic Program Coordinator), and will condL;Jct the selection process. The selection will be based on a set of parameters with appropriate weighting for consistency and transparency. These parameters include GPA, GRE, an essay/research statement, recommendation letter(s); and an interview with at least one member of the NEP Fellowship Committee. Table 1 provides the proposed scoring criteria that will be used in this year's fellowship selection process.

Table 1: Weighting/Scoring Criteria Considered for Selection c:if NRC Fellows

Factor GPA GRE Research Statement Recommendations Interview Total Score

Score 25 20 25

15 15

100

Annually, during the graduate recruitment season, generally December to mid-April, the

Committee will review progress of the current fellows, and select new fellows from a pool

of new applicants and existing graduate students (provided that fellowships are currently

-?

unoccupied). If a mid-academic year fellowship position is available (due to early

graduation of a fellowship recipient), we will re-open the selection process to ensure that

fellowships remain fully utilized.

2.4 Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

--- The University NEP Fellowship Committee will enact an evaluation plan similar .to what

is in place for our current NRC Fellowships, in order to demonstrate we are attracting,

preparing alid retaining students in the Fellowship, ?and placing students in appropriate career paths. As part of our application phase, we collect and retain data on the applicants. For example, with the 2014 NRC Fellowship (which we were awarded}, we had 6 applicants (with 2 female and 2 underrepresented minority students applying}, with an average GPA of 3.4. The demographics for the applicants were well above the current demographics of the graduate student body in the nuclear engineering program. Additional data that we collect includes the number of NRC Fellowship applicants

applying for other fellowships, average GRE scores, and how they received notice ofthe

fellowship.

After the fellowship is awarded, the UF NEP Fellowship Committe~. with the assistance

from fellow's faculty advisor, will monitor educational progress of each fellow, and prepare a short report at the end of each semester (15 December for UF's Fall Semester, 15 May for UF's Spring Semester, and 15 August for UF's Summer Semester). These reports will contain information on the number of applicants versus fellowships awarded, and include information on the tracking of GPA's and degree progress of students that are awarded fellowships. Any other information related to the academic accomplishments of the fellows demonstrating the high caliber of the participants will be included in the report as well (e.g., papers and presentations at conferences). Based on the semester reports, an annual report will be prepared and submitted to the NRC Project Manager electronically.

Should a student's progress fall below the standards (for example, the student has a GPA below 3.3), the student will.be put on probation for the fellowship, and a plan put

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NRC-HQ-84-16-G-0036

into place and the student will have one semester to improve his or her petfonnance. If the student's performance remains below the standards for progression, the fellowship shall be revoked.

In addition, using the resources available in the Department's Academic Services Office, we will track fellowship recipients to ensure additional academic obligations for degree completion are met and reporting to the NRC is fulfilled. We will also track students' post-graduation careers and provide guidance to help retain students within nuclear careers tracks. This tracking starts once a student applies for graduation, and includes an exit survey once they complete their requirements for a degree.

2.5 Recruitment ?Activities

The NEP will utilize existing programs at UF for graduate student recruitment. Specifically, we will utilize the annual UF College of Engineering Graduate Student Recruitment Weekend to invite top student applicants which are selected by the NEP Graduate Admissions Committee, partially based on the parameters in Table 1. The event is typically scheduled at the end of February each year, and we generally select 12-15 applicants to visit campus (including some of our own undergraduate students applying for graduate school). During this recruitment event, faculty interview students

in a relaxed setting during the various NEP activities, culminating with one-on-one

interviews with the recruits. The travel costs are covered by the NEP and College of Engineering. Furthermore, all of the arrangements are made through the Academic Program Coordinator's office.

2.6 Marketing Strategies

will Besides our existing marketing activities with regard to recruitment, we also consider

the following for marketing the proposed fellowship program:

., Advertise the program within the NEP and MSE websites. ? Prepare a one-page announcement for advertising and marketing the NRC

Fellowship Program, along with an application form. ? E-mail the announcement to current and potential graduate students that are

eligible for the fellowship. ? Announce the program to students via social media (e.g., the NEP Facebook

page and Twitter) . ., Encourage promotion of the NRC fellowship through the UF College of

Engineering graduate programs recruiter who conducts visits to various institutions on behalf of University. This fellowship program is also announced as a potential fellowship mechanism during the College of Engineering Graduate ? Recruiting Weekend, which occurs every year in late February. ? The NEP is developing a strategic partnership with Florida lntemational University's Applied Research Center, which ?is creating a Master's in Applied Radiological Science (MARS) degree. This strategic partnership will be a new source of potential Ph.D. graduate students for the UF Nuclear Engineering Program, and applicants for the UF NEP Fellowship Program.

2.7 Management and Administration

The NEP Program Director (currently Dr. James Baciak, who also serves as Interim Chair for the Materials Science and Engineering Department) will be responsible for _the

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NRC-HQ-84-16-G-0036

management and administration ofthe fellowship program, and will assume the managerial role by generating plans ofaction, assemble the NEP Fellowship Committee, making sure resources are optimally used to carry out the mission of the program, and checking progress against plans of action in case there is a need to modify the plans. Dr. Baciak will also be responsible for assembling and submitting the annual report to the NRG Program Manager.

2.8 Schedule of Tuition and Costs for Students

Costs for tuition are based on a per credit hour cost, and are paid for within the first month of each semester. In addition, students are required to pay a number of fees (e.g., technology fees, activity and service fee, transportation access fee, etc.) that cost $81'.96/credit hour that are also paid atthe same time and schedule as.the tuition costs. Additional details on this costs are included in the budget and budget narrative attached to this proposal.

? .....

To coincide with our semester and academic year schedules, we are proposing an

August 15, 2016 start date for this fellowship.

2.9 Service Agreement Terms and Conditions

.

Students receiving a 2016 University of Florida Nuclear Engineering Graduate

Fellowship will be required to sign the terms and conditions form indicating they accept

service agreement terms forthe NRC fellowship.

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?

?3. Significance and impact of the Proposed Program

We believe that the proposed NRC Graduate Fellowship Program can successfully produce highly qualified employees for different sectors of the nuclear industry:

-? .NEP has had experience in developing and operating successful fellowship programs in the past.

? NEP recruits high quality graduate students. The average graduate applicant for Fall 2016 admission was 3.64. ?

? NEP continues to grow its graduate program, and the addition of the NRC Graduate Fellowship Program will increase the rate of growth.

? The growth in NEP has allowed the College to dedicate two more faculty lines to the program, and we are actively searching to fill these two lines by Fall 2016.

? NEP has excellent institutional support; in the past 24 months we have hired 2 new faculty members, and we have an official Program Director.

? In the past two years, we have tripled our annual research expenditures, and we expect the research expenditures to continue to grow.

? UF and NEP is one of only a handful of nuclear engineering programs which still maintains a research reactor, and we are currently enhancing the UFTR facility

(recently received new fuel, significant facility renovations, and received funding for a new irradiation materials characterization laboratory). We recently brought the UFTR to critical position for the first time in over seven years. ? Nuclear utilities in the state? (and surrounding region) are planning to build (or are building) new power plants, and the State of Florida is favorable to nuclear energy. .. The impact and effectiveness of the NEP Program Director has been recognized by the College and University, which promoted the Director to MSE Interim Chair.

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