Dear Colleagues,
This is the letter from SARA, a short update for NASA scientists. Today I
will tell you about the Science Mission Directorate's upcoming big omnibus
solicitation Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) for
2011. As always, we will be calling for proposals on a wide range of basic
and applied supporting research and technology in space and Earth sciences,
from data analysis, experiments and observations to theory, fieldwork,
aircraft, stratospheric balloon, suborbital rocket, and commercial reusable
rocket investigations. From the development of concepts, techniques, and
technologies for future SMD space missions and the laboratory analysis
extraterrestrial samples to Earth surface observations and development of
models and methods for applying Earth science research data to societal
needs.
Usually we release ROSES around February 14, but this year we are targeting
February 18, 2011, for the release of ROSES-2011. It will appear at
http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ (select "Solicitations" then "Open
Solicitations" and "NNH11ZDA001N" and of course there will be links from the
SARA solicitations page). The reason for the delay is that the president¹s
budget for FY 2012 will not be released until mid February and ROSES 2011
projects will be supported with FY 2012 funds, so we have delayed our
planned release date to come out after the president¹s budget for FY 2012.
However, I can give you a little preview of some things that don¹t reveal
any budget information. Proposers should be aware of the following
significant changes in this NRA from last year:
1. In the past support for conferences and workshops was primarily provided
in response to unsolicited proposals, since there were few ROSES program
elements that included this kind of work (B.6 LWS TRT and C.13 MFRP being
notable exceptions). Unsolicited proposals for topical workshops, symposia,
conferences, and other scientific/technical meetings will no longer be
accepted. Proposals for such events should be submitted to those few program
elements (such as B.6 and C.13) that include it or in response to the
Topical Workshops, Symposia, and Conferences program element found in
Appendix E.2.
2. We still don¹t know if NASA civil servant salaries will be handled within
NASA program budgets (such as the research budgets which fund ROSES
investigations) or within a unified labor account. The important thing for
proposers to know is that we have been directed to instruct proposers to
omit the cost of NASA civil servant salaries from ROSES proposals. The NASA
civil servants will upload their budgets separately. Changes to NASA¹s
internal policy about civil servant salaries for ROSES proposals and the
resulting Center awards will be handled through direction to the Centers and
not through an amendment to ROSES. The latest NASA internal policy on this
subject, including instructions to proposers on what should be in the
budgets and what shouldn¹t and how NASA Centers can upload their budgets,
may be found at the SARA website at
http://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/how-to-guide/nspires-CSlabor/.
In addition to those two significant changes from last year, there are
numerous small changes, so please read the call. For example, eligibility to
propose for supplemental education and public outreach awards (Appendices
E.5 and E.6) has not changed, but is now indicated by a line in the Summary
of Key Information table at the end of each program element description
rather than a whole boilerplate paragraph in each call.
Also, just in case you didn¹t read ROSES last year, here are some things
that changed in recent years:
All team members identified on the NSPIRES proposal cover page must go
online to acknowledge their participation in the investigation (and indicate
their institutional affiliation) via NSPIRES. No more letters from
collaborators are needed in the body of the proposal.
Proposals submitted in response to ROSES-2011 can be submitted through
either NSPIRES or Grants.gov. However, certain caveats apply (such as
registration in NSPIRES even if the proposal is submitted via Grants.gov),
see Section IV(b)(v) for details.
Unless specifically allowed by an individual program element (program
elements are the appendices to ROSES), multiple PIs (as described in Section
1.4.2 of the NASA Guidebook for Proposers) are not permitted. The use of
other categories of participation described in Section 1.4.2 of the NASA
Guidebook for Proposers, including Science PI, Institutional PI, and Co-PI
(from a non-U.S. organization under specific circumstances), remain
permitted.
Finally, there is a new guidebook for proposers posted in the normal place
at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/nraguidebook/.
Max Bernstein
SARA@nasa.gov