Major Shake-Up Coming For Fermilab (science.org) 16
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine: In an unusual move, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has quietly begun a new competition for the contract to run the United States's sole dedicated particle physics laboratory. Announced in January, the rebid comes 1 year after Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), which is managed in part by the University of Chicago (UChicago), failed an annual DOE performance review and 9 months after it named a new director. DOE would not comment, but observers say its frustrations include cost increases and delays in a gargantuan new neutrino experiment.
"I don't think it's surprising at all given the department's evaluation of [Fermilab's] performance," says James Decker, a physicist and consultant with Decker, Garman, Sullivan & Associates, LLC, who served as principal deputy director of DOE's Office of Science from 1973 to 2007. Although Fermilab passed its 2022 performance evaluation, the one for fiscal year 2021 was "one of the most scathing I have seen," Decker says.
DOE has already solicited letters of interest and will issue a request for formal proposals this summer. It intends to award the new contract by the end of the next fiscal year, 30 September 2024, and transfer control of the lab, which employs 2100 staff and has an annual budget of $614 million, on January 1, 2025. UChicago hopes to win the contract again, says Paul Alivisatos, president of the university, who is also chair of FRA's board of directors and a former director of DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "We absolutely will be bidding to continue." [...] How many parties will bid on the contract remains unclear. Managing the lab requires very specific technical expertise but pays $5 million per year, at most. "I don't think that there are too many organizations that could really compete for this contract," Decker says. If just UChicago or URA bid on the new contract, they'll need a new partner, multiple observers say, perhaps one with expertise in huge construction projects. DOE is sure to insist that something changes.
"I don't think it's surprising at all given the department's evaluation of [Fermilab's] performance," says James Decker, a physicist and consultant with Decker, Garman, Sullivan & Associates, LLC, who served as principal deputy director of DOE's Office of Science from 1973 to 2007. Although Fermilab passed its 2022 performance evaluation, the one for fiscal year 2021 was "one of the most scathing I have seen," Decker says.
DOE has already solicited letters of interest and will issue a request for formal proposals this summer. It intends to award the new contract by the end of the next fiscal year, 30 September 2024, and transfer control of the lab, which employs 2100 staff and has an annual budget of $614 million, on January 1, 2025. UChicago hopes to win the contract again, says Paul Alivisatos, president of the university, who is also chair of FRA's board of directors and a former director of DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "We absolutely will be bidding to continue." [...] How many parties will bid on the contract remains unclear. Managing the lab requires very specific technical expertise but pays $5 million per year, at most. "I don't think that there are too many organizations that could really compete for this contract," Decker says. If just UChicago or URA bid on the new contract, they'll need a new partner, multiple observers say, perhaps one with expertise in huge construction projects. DOE is sure to insist that something changes.
Elon'll fix it (Score:5, Funny)
1) Put the galaxy's greatest ever genius in charge
2) Make his takeover a PPV reality series at $8/mth
3) PROFITS!!!
Re:Put it under NASA's control (Score:4, Insightful)
Scientists make poor construction managers (Score:3)
Who would have thought?
Film at 11, 10 Central and Mountain time.
Re: (Score:2)
I work at one of them. I can tell you that scientists are not managing construction.
Outsource to China? (Score:3)
You know - all these laser beams, ion beams, antimatter beams...
Re: Outsource to China? (Score:5, Funny)
Not surprising (Score:2)
Don't let Battelle bid (Score:1)
Keep Battelle away from the bidding process unless you want Fermilab to turn into the Dunder Mifflin of science labs.
first woman (Score:5, Insightful)
"...first woman to hold the position." Scientists don't always make the best administrators. In fact, the opposite is usually the case. Choosing scientists to be administrators based on sex seems like it might have some pitfalls.
Re:first woman (Score:4, Informative)
"Choosing scientists to be administrators based on sex seems like it might have some pitfalls.
Well, the fact that 100% of her predecessors were male could also be seen as a result of a process that was incredibly gender biased.
Project based science doesn't work well (Score:5, Informative)
Its easy to make the early stages of the project look successful, management pushes the technically challenging parts of the project out, so they can claim completion of WBS items and appear to be on-budget, on-schedule for years, even when they are actually far behind.
When the projects are highly technical, it can be very difficult for reviewers to accurately evaluate the proposal and budgets. (I've been on both sides of the table on big project reviews for DOE accelerator projects).
IMHO the entire idea of project-based funding is broken for science projects. Better to have annual budgets that the labs can spend as they with, with backward looking reviews to see that the funds were spent effectively.
Re: (Score:2)
And if, as likely as not, they weren't then you're in a hole that typically gets deeper and deeper.
Then you have no business funding large projects till you figure that out.
Getting rid of Lykken? (Score:2)