Early Career Faculty | 80HQTR18NOA01 18ECF B1

Opportunity Information: Apply for 80HQTR18NOA01 18ECF B1

NASA Headquarters, through the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), announced the Early Career Faculty (ECF) solicitation as an appendix to its broader NASA Research Announcement called "Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2018 (SpaceTech-REDDI-2018)." The program is run under STMD's Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) effort and is meant to help launch strong, long-term academic careers in space technology by supporting innovative, early-stage research at U.S. universities. The underlying idea is to invest in university-led work that can push fundamental technology forward while also training the next generation of engineers and scientists, spreading new knowledge through graduate students and partnerships with industry and government, and strengthening the national talent pipeline tied to aerospace and advanced engineering.

The solicitation targets proposals in specific space-technology topic areas identified in the appendix. For this particular ECF call, NASA anticipated topics including batteries designed to operate in extreme cold environments, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and ionic liquid or membrane-based approaches for advanced carbon dioxide removal, and entry guidance methods that improve precision landing for planetary landers. In practice, this means NASA is looking for creative technical approaches that are still relatively early in development but have a clear connection to future mission needs and technology infusion paths.

Eligibility is tightly focused on early-career tenure-track faculty. Only accredited U.S. universities can submit, and they submit on behalf of a single Principal Investigator (PI) who must be an untenured Assistant Professor on a tenure track at the submitting university at the time of award. The PI must be a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, must be the primary researcher driving the work, and must lead the project without any Co-Investigators (Co-Is are not allowed under this specific program structure). Collaboration is allowed, but it is controlled by the rules in the solicitation; collaborators can participate (with restrictions, including special treatment of NASA civil servants and JPL personnel), but the project leadership and credit are intentionally centered on one qualifying early-career faculty member. Each PI is limited to one proposal submission for this appendix.

From a funding and award standpoint, the opportunity is a discretionary federal assistance program (CFDA 43.012) using grants and/or cooperative agreements. NASA indicated an award ceiling of up to $600,000 per award and planned to make roughly 6 to 8 awards, depending on proposal quality and available funds, while also reserving the option to make no awards if proposals did not meet expectations or budgets changed. Awards were expected to begin around October 2018, aligning the start of funded work with the federal fiscal-year cycle and NASA program planning.

Applications had to be submitted electronically through NSPIRES (NASA's proposal system) or via Grants.gov by an authorized organizational representative, meaning individual faculty could not submit on their own outside university sponsorship and internal approvals. A Notice of Intent was strongly encouraged by February 28, 2018, with full proposals due by March 28, 2018. NASA emphasized that applicant organizations should register in NSPIRES early and not wait until the deadline, since incomplete registrations or last-minute uploads can derail an otherwise competitive submission.

For questions, NASA provided a single email point of contact (hq-ecf-call@mail.nasa.gov) for both technical/programmatic and procurement inquiries, naming Claudia Meyer as the program executive contact and Kimberly Cone as the acquisition contact. NASA also noted that answers might be shared in an FAQ posted with the solicitation on NSPIRES, while protecting the anonymity of those who submit questions. Overall, the ECF opportunity is designed as a focused career-building award that combines a defined set of NASA technology needs with strict early-career eligibility rules and a strong expectation that the funded work will grow a faculty member's research trajectory in space technology.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA Headquarters in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Early Career Faculty" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 43.012.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 08, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 28, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $600,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 80HQTR18NOA01 18ECF B1

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