Funding Opportunities and Announcements

You may download the current planning list of SMD Solicitations (NRAs and AOs) as a PDF from the SOMA web page. ROSES is released each year on or about February 14^th. Planned program elements of ROSES are listed in the ROSES tables of due dates as 'TBD' and hypertext links from each title in the table of due dates connects to the NSPIRES page for that program element with a summary and point of contact.

SAM notice NNH24ZDA008L states NASA’s plans to release draft text for comment for a 2025 SMEX AO.

The intended time frame for the solicitation is:
Release of draft AO...................................... December 2024
Release of final AO...................................... March 2025
Pre-proposal conference.............................. ~3 weeks after final AO release
Notice of Intent............................................. NET 45 days after AO release
Proposals due.............................................. NET 90 days after AO release
Step 1 Selection announced........................ 1^st Quarter CY2026 (target)
SMEX Down-selection.................................. Fall CY2027 (target)
SMEX launch readiness date...................... NLT 2^nd Quarter CY 2031

Additional information will be posted, as it becomes available, by the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Science Office for Mission Assessments (SOMA) on its 2025 Astrophysics SMEX Acquisition website at https://explorers.larc.nasa.gov/APSMEX25/SMEX/index.html.

Questions or comments about this intention to release an Astrophysics SMEX AO may be addressed via email only to Doris Daou, Astrophysics Small Explorers Program Lead Scientist, SMD, Doris.Daou@nasa.gov and E. Lucien Cox, Astrophysics Small Explorers Program Executive, SMD, elbert.l.cox@nasa.gov using subject line "APD 2025 SMEX CA". Email questions/comments no later than September 20, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.

NASA's Earth Science Division has issued SAM notice NNH24ZDA005L expressing its intention to solicit investigations in the future for Earth System Observatory focused on the Cloud, Convection, and Precipitation (CCP) Designated Observables. As discussed at the ESD Community Forum, March 13, 2024, instead of a tightly coupled architecture published for the Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) during Phase A formulation, NASA will identify those parts of the Aerosol, and of the CCP Designated Observables, where competition may allow a more informed selection of science approach. For more information on the ESD Community Forum, please visit the landing page https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/esd-community-forum

SMD intends to release in Quarter 1 of FY 2025 for comment a draft of an AOS-Cloud AO that will solicit proposals for a PI-led, cost capped mission, called Atmosphere Observing System – Cloud (AOS-Cloud) focusing on the CCP observables. At that time, the anticipated schedule for the final AO release through down-selection will be provided.

For more information see the notice on SAM at https://sam.gov/opp/5779aa4df33146e18ef0c027a8c905e8/view

NASA received comments on the draft New Frontiers 5 Announcement of Opportunity in 2023. The current estimated release of final AO is no earlier than 2026. Comments provided in response to that draft will feed into development of the AO targeted for release no earlier than 2026. To assist proposers, NASA plans to share the major policies for the next AO approximately 18 months before the targeted release of the AO.

Further information will be posted when it is available on the New Frontiers Program Acquisition Website hosted by the Science Office for Mission Assessments (SOMA) at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) at https://newfrontiers.larc.nasa.gov/NF5/

The NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program is developing an external submission portal for NASA-funded investigators to submit Accepted Manuscripts and other STI products. The portal is expected to be available later this summer.

The external portal will be used in place of the National Institutes of Health Manuscripts System (NIHMS), for grant and cooperative agreement recipients. The external portal will provide a more direct and streamlined Accepted Manuscript submission process for recipients. The STI Program will send communications prior to the start date with instructions and reminders.

As part of this transition, an information page about the new portal is available on the STI Program website which will be updated throughout the process: https://sti.nasa.gov/new-external-submission-portal/.

The STI Program invites comments and questions about this new external manuscript submission portal via the Research Access Help Desk at https://sti.nasa.gov/sti-contact-form/?RequestType=ResearchAccess.

In our "ROSES" research solicitation we have expanded the use of dual-anonymous peer review in which, not only are proposers not told the identity their reviewers, the reviewers are not told the identity of the proposers (until after they have evaluated the scientific merit of all of the anonymized proposals). To learn more about dual-anonymous peer review see https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/dual-anonymous-peer-review.

In our "ROSES" research solicitation we have expanded the number of programs with no fixed due date. To these no due date programs (including seven in planetary science), proposals may be submitted at any time without any preliminary statement such as a Notice of Intent or Step-1 proposal. For more information see https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/NoDD.

On the library and useful links page we have resources that may be useful to those who are new to proposing to ROSES: Links to YouTube versions of presentations given at Goddard in February 2022 at https://youtu.be/62QqJ2Nnlzc and older by Max Bernstein (NASA HQ) and Christina Richey (JPL) about proposal writing. Both the video of Dr. Richey (thanks to the SETI Institute) and the video of Max Bernstein (thanks to NASA Ames Research Center). Other information that maybe useful to early career/ potential new PIs may be found at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/new-pi-resources.