Proposals

FY26 Call for Proposals

The SLAC LDRD Call for Proposals for FY26 will be announced by Lab Director John Sarrao and interim Director of the Office of Strategic Planning Robert Schoenlein in February 2025.

Lead Investigators submit letters of intent (LOIs) to the LDRD program through the online form by March 2025, date TBD. In late March-early April, Lead Investigators of approved LOIs will be invited to submit full proposals.

Deadlines to submit proposals to ALDs are determined within each Directorate. Directorates submit proposals to the LDRD Program by April 29, 2025.

NOTE:  SLAC login required for Call,  Stanford SUNet login required for LOI

Application Process

Qualified proposals will be invited for submittal through an initial letter of intent (LOI) review process. ALD concurrence is required for submittal. LOIs must be submitted through the online form (SUNet login required) by March 2025, date TBD. 

LOI form (closed)

Lead Investigators create project proposals with an annually updated proposal template. Following the LOI review and invitation to submit full proposals, LDRD proposals are due April 29, 2025.

Proposal template (closed)

 

Supplemental guidance and overview resource slides for the proposal template will also be available during the proposal preparation period.

Supplemental guidance (closed)

Proposal template overview resource (closed)

 

For proposal budget preparation, Lead Investigators must contact the directorate’s business office. The directorate's business office has the budgeting instructions. A list of finance contacts is provided below.

Finance contacts

SLAC login required for all

All proposals must be submitted as a PDF file via upload to an LDRD proposals folder hosted by the Office of Strategic Planning. The upload folder can be accessed by the SLAC Business Managers and LDRD administration only. Business Managers, please reach out to LDRD administration to authorize delegates. The proposal upload folder is only accessible during the submission window between the LOI deadline and the proposal deadline.

Proposal upload folder (closed)

  1. From LDRD Proposals, click the directorate folder to which you want to add a document.

  2. Click Upload to upload the proposal materials, or drag-and-drop materials into the directorate folder.

Process Information Resources

All peer review, project execution, and business processes related to the LDRD Program at SLAC adhere to the SLAC LDRD Program Review & Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy.

COI policy document

SLAC login required

A list of panel members reviewing FY26 LDRD proposals will be published ahead of internal panel presentations June 11-12.

SLAC login required