National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Proposal Toolkit

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is America’s civil space program and the global leader in space exploration. At its 20 centers and facilities across the country – and the only National Laboratory in space – NASA studies Earth, including its climate, our Sun, and our solar system and beyond. We conduct research, testing, and development to advance aeronautics, including electric propulsion and supersonic flight. We develop and fund space technologies that will enable future exploration and benefit life on Earth.

Funding Opportunities for Research

These pages provide links to current and upcoming funding opportunities through the annual Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) and other programs.

Dual-Anonymous Peer Review (DAPR)

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is strongly committed to ensuring that the review of proposals is performed in an equitable and fair manner. To this end, SMD will evaluate proposals to many ROSES program elements using dual-anonymous peer review (DAPR). Under this system, not only are proposers unaware of the identity of the members on the review panel, but the reviewers are not told the identities of the proposers until after the evaluation and rating of all proposals is complete (see below). The objective of dual-anonymous peer review is to minimize the impact of implicit or unconscious bias in the evaluation of the merit of a proposal. In ROSES-2023, more than 30 program elements will employ DAPR. Any program element that that uses DAPR will state clearly in the program element text.

NASA Guidebook for Proposers

Required NASA Documents

Any time you do not follow NASA guidelines, you put your proposal at risk of being returned without review.
URA will assist in reviewing your proposal for compliance, but the PI is ultimately responsible for ensuring proposals are compliant with sponsor and program guidelines.
Everything from font size to number of pages to excluding unallowable documents is vital to ensure that your proposal will be reviewed for scientific merit.
All applications should follow the NASA Guidebook for Proposers for required proposal elements and order of information.
If submitting to a topic under Research Opportunities in Earth and Space Science (ROSES), then the ROSES solicitation deviations supersede the Guidebook.

Specific program solicitations may have requirements that vary from the standard ROSES checklist. Most common deviation is the Data Management Plan; sometimes required as part of the proposal document.

Details on document requirements are provided in the following checklists:

Unsolicited Proposals

If a NASA Program Officer has requested a proposal, but not in response to an open solicitation, they may direct the PI to submit through NSPIRES Unsolicited funding opportunity.
The proposal should be prepared in accordance with the instructions provided by the Program Officer. If no instructions were provided, then the Guidance for the Preparation and Submission of Unsolicited Proposals should be followed.
Standard NSPIRES fields must be completed.

Formatting NASA Documents

Acceptable fonts: Easily read 12 point
1 inch margins
Single spaced
Only non-proposal material, e.g., page numbers, section titles, disclaimers, etc., is permitted in headers and footers.

NASA New Principal Investigator Resources

This page provides prospective mission principal investigators with resources that may be useful as they develop their mission concepts, as well as information on developmental opportunities to prepare future mission leaders.

NASA Shared Services Center

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), through the establishment of the NSSC, has transitioned to a consolidated model for the award and administration of all Agency grants and cooperative agreements. The consolidation is designed to achieve efficient and effective service, improve data quality, standardize processes, leverage skills and investments, and provide economies of scale. This provides comprehensive guidance for the submission of proposals and management of awards.

Grants Status Search
Request a No-Cost Extension
OMB Memos and Policy Notifications
Grant Forms
Guidance of NASA Insignia Use
Payment Management System
Invoice Processing Platform (IPP)
Federal Financial Reports (SF-425)
References
Required Documentation for Award Packages
NASA Office of Inspector General
Useful Information

Other NASA Resources

For researchers, NASA provides the following resources for applications and using the NASA NSPIRES system:

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