In preparation for the release of the 2024 National NASA EPSCoR Rapid Research Response (R3) solicitation, the National NASA EPSCoR Project Director has provided an advance copy of the Research Focus Areas (RFAs) all research topics for which proposals may be submitted. We anticipate that the solicitation will be very similar to last year’s solicitation with a few critical exceptions. Each jurisdiction will only be allowed to submit six proposals, but they may address the same or different topics. Additionally, renewal proposals may only be submitted if a NASA Center, Mission Directorate or other group agrees to provide the funds for the renewal.
Below is a brief summary of the requirements/guidance for this solicitation:
Funding: Funding awards are expected to be $100K of Federal funds with no match requirement for a one-year period of performance. Most proposals are limited to 2-3 pages. There may be some exceptions for a particular topic that will allow up to 5 pages, which will be stated in the topic appendix.
Eligibility: Faculty at NSHE institutions, particularly junior faculty, women, and members of other underrepresented populations are encouraged to apply. Faculty who have a current National NASA EPSCoR Research CAN or R3 project are not eligible to apply while their project is on-going. There is no requirement that Science PIs be U.S. citizens, however, foreign nationals (i.e., non-U.S. citizens who do not have a green card) will likely not be permitted access to NASA Centers. This may or may not be important to the research being proposed.
A solicitation for letters of Interest (LOI) from interested faculty will be released Fall 2024. If there are more than 6 letters of interest, we will first determine if there is any possibility of collaboration. A peer-review process will be used to downselect to the six LOIs to be invited to proceed to full proposal development. Therefore, it will be very important that you make a strong case for why your idea on how to respond to one of the R3 topics should be selected for proposal development. Evaluation criteria will include:
- Detailed explanation of project relevance to one of the R3 topics
- A letter of support or collaboration from a NASA scientist (civil servant or contractor working at or affiliated with a NASA center)
- A brief, but clear, explanation of your project goals/objectives, the methods you will employ to address your goals and most importantly expected outcomes and how those outcomes will advance the science and meet NASA needs.
Note: the LOI will be limited to one page with title, topic appendix/number and Science PI listed at the top. The NASA letter of support/collaboration (can be a copy of an email) does not count toward the one page.
Note that each research focus area in the attached list includes a NASA point-of-contact (POC). Faculty that do not have an existing collaborator at a NASA center is encouraged to contact the POC as they may be able to provide the names of some NASA scientists who might be interested in collaborating with you on your project.
Approximate anticipated due dates (subject to change):
- Solicitation release from NASA: November 11, 2024
- Solicitation release from NV NASA EPSCoR: November 13, 2024
- Solicitation Webinar (Q&A): Late November (Link will be provided in the NV NASA EPSCoR R3 Solicitation)
- LOI’s due to NSHE: Late November/early December 2024
- Decisions on LOIs to proceed to full proposal: early December 2024
- Full proposals to NV NASA EPSCoR for review: February 10, 2025
- Full proposals to NASA: February 24, 2025
- Awards Announced: Spring 2025