The Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program is a vital source of internally directed funding at SLAC. Each year SLAC directs up to 6% of the Laboratory’s total budget, in accordance with DOE Order 413.2C.

By allocating the resources for SLAC scientists to make rapid contributions in new areas, tackle high-risk/high-payoff problems and develop cross-disciplinary approaches to important scientific and technological challenges, the LDRD program contributes to the Lab’s scientific capability and vitality. Ultimately, the LDRD program supports and advances SLAC’s mission and strategy with investments in R&D aiming to:

• Enable discoveries that will create new or enrich existing research directions aligned with the Lab’s core capabilities and the DOE mission
• Enhance existing or develop new R&D capabilities aligned with the Lab’s strategy
• Attract and develop key talent in support of Lab’s mission and initiatives

LDRD projects are typically conducted with a scale of effort that utilizes existing experimental or computational facilities at SLAC. This scale of effort has been sufficient in demonstrating proof-of-principle for a new idea or methodology or for developing small-scale R&D capabilities.