National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Proposal Toolkit

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.

Grant Notice 24-01 NASA Policy Update

NASA Grants Policy and Compliance has published Grant Notice 24-01 informing NASA grant and cooperative agreement recipients and applicants about upcoming changes to NASA’s grant policies being released on October 1, 2024, which implement revisions to 2 CFR and National Security Presidential Memorandum-33.

The Grant Notice, published on the Grants Policy and Compliance website, outlines what proposers and grant recipients can expect in the coming weeks, as NASA prepares to release updated grant guidance in the NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Manual.

While changes to policy are effective for grants being awarded on or after October 1, 2024, GPC recognizes that upcoming requirements around biosketch and current and pending (other) support (CPS) disclosures could change for proposers while there is an open Notice Of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). As such, if a proposal is submitted that does not comply with the changes, and has been selected for funding, the NASA Shared Services Center will request and collect the new required forms and certifications from entities post-application and pre-award. Please see further guidance below:

NOFO Release	Award Date	Biosketch CPS Reporting Requirement/New Certs and Reps	Submission Method
Prior to October 1, 2024	Prior to October 1, 2024	No new requirements	N/A
Prior to October 1, 2024	On or After October 1, 2024	New requirements apply	Via Email to NSSC Grant Officer, as Requested
On or After October 1, 2024	On or After October 1, 2024	New requirements apply	Submission in NSPIRES

For questions on the Grant Notice, please contact HQ Grants Policy and Compliance: hq-dl-grants-policy-compliance@nasa.gov

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.

Other NASA Resources

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