NASA-RI EPSCoR Research Seed Grants

NASA RI EPSCoR is offering the opportunity for institutions in Rhode Island to apply for small research seed grants starting in June, 2020. Proposed research must demonstrate direct relevance to the at least one or more of the priorities identified by the NASA Mission Directorates. These seed grants are intended to enable faculty to explore new research, which could enable longer term support. Types of support could include domestic travel, supplies, and summer salary. In the past, we required a 1:1 legitimate non-federal match from your department or institution. In 2020 and 2021, however, NASA Headquarters now requires only 50% match for the grant. And through readjustments in our match strategies in our office, we will now require only a 25% match (non-federal). The maximum annual award to be considered this year will be $15K for one year, but we anticipate that most awards will be below $5K (see below).

We would be happy to discuss strategies about how to achieve the required match but could include a direct funding, match institutional support of a student, in-kind support (needs documentation), foundation support, and equipment or technician fees (all directly applied to the proposed research). In some instances, the only match may be a waiver of indirect support by your institution. In those cases, our University would still charge indirect costs (62.5%), also requiring the necessary 25% match by the applicant. If the total award is less than $5.0K, however, RISG could fund the activity directly (but match still has to be documented). Of course, much smaller awards, (e.g., research or conference travel, new research enabling supplies, travel to a NASA Center, etc.) are welcome. Awardees would be expected to generate a short final report and make a presentation (oral or poster) at an annual Symposium.