Early Stage Innovation (ESI) | 80HQTR18NOA01 18ESI B2

Opportunity Information: Apply for 80HQTR18NOA01 18ESI B2

NASA Headquarters, through its Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), released the Early Stage Innovations (ESI) solicitation as an appendix to the broader SpaceTech-REDDI-2018 NASA Research Announcement on May 2, 2018. The purpose of ESI is to fund early, university-led research that is genuinely new and potentially disruptive for spaceflight, with the expectation that the work could eventually produce clear, substantial improvements at the overall system level. NASA emphasizes that even if the research progress during the grant is incremental, the proposal must spell out a credible path to dramatic mission or hardware benefits such as better performance, lower mass, reduced cost, higher reliability, simpler operations, or other meaningful metrics for space systems.

The opportunity is run under the Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) Program within STMD, reflecting NASA's view that universities are uniquely positioned to combine fundamental research with workforce development. A central motivation is not only to mature promising technology concepts, but also to strengthen the national pipeline of engineers and scientists by supporting graduate students and encouraging partnerships that help move knowledge into industry, government, and broader society. The solicitation explicitly encourages participation and proposal submissions from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions, and it also highlights NASA's interest in proposals involving women, underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities, and early-career faculty.

Eligibility is limited to accredited U.S. universities. Teaming arrangements are allowed, but proposers must follow the solicitation's specific rules on eligibility and teaming restrictions. There is also a participation cap: any individual serving as a Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Investigator (Co-I) may be involved in no more than two proposals submitted to this ESI call, which is intended to keep submissions focused and manageable and to broaden participation across the community.

ESI is narrowly scoped to proposals that align with one of six specified technical topic areas, and submissions must clearly fit at least one of them. The six topics are: (1) modeling for small satellite electric propulsion, (2) smart and autonomous systems for space, (3) omni-optical antennas and optical multiple-access technologies for free-space near-Earth satellite communications, (4) modeling shock-layer radiation and chemical kinetics for planetary entry, (5) physical and mechanistic modeling of the self-reacting friction stir welding process, and (6) smart tribological mechanical systems for extreme-temperature space environments. NASA notes that future ESI appendix releases may expand to other topics, but this particular call is confined to these six areas.

From a funding and schedule standpoint, the solicitation is a discretionary grant opportunity (CFDA 43.012) with an anticipated award ceiling of $500,000 per award. NASA planned to make about 12 awards, contingent on receiving proposals that are sufficiently strong, and it reserves the right to make no awards if meritorious proposals are not received. The planned start date for awards was January 2019, indicating NASA's intent to move funded projects into execution relatively quickly after selection.

For submission, proposals had to be transmitted electronically through NSPIRES or Grants.gov by an authorized organizational representative. NASA strongly encouraged submission of a Notice of Intent by May 23, 2018, with full proposals due by June 20, 2018 at 5:00 pm Eastern. Applicants were advised to register early in NSPIRES, learn the submission system workflows ahead of time, and submit well before the deadline to avoid administrative or technical issues. Programmatic and technical questions, as well as acquisition questions, were directed to the ESI call email address (hq-esi-call@mail.nasa.gov), with NASA indicating that answers could be shared back via email and potentially incorporated into a public FAQ on the NSPIRES solicitation page while preserving the anonymity of those who submitted questions.

• 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 Stage Innovation (ESI)" 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 May 02, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 20, 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 $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 80HQTR18NOA01 18ESI B2

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: